For years the S/4HANA conversation was about surviving the 2027 deadline. The more important question is what you can do once you are live. SAP’s direction is clear: a clean core, extended on SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), with Joule and AI agents working on top. SAPinsider’s 2026 research found that SAP’s AI announcements now shape ERP strategy more than the deadline itself. This final article in our complete SAP ECC to S/4HANA migration guide covers what that second wave looks like.
What clean core actually means
Clean core means the S/4HANA standard stays unmodified. Custom requirements are met, in order of preference, by standard configuration, by key-user extensibility, by upgrade-safe developer extensibility, and by side-by-side extensions on BTP. The payoff is simpler upgrades, faster adoption of new SAP capabilities and a system that AI can reason about reliably.
Extending S/4HANA on SAP BTP
BTP is where custom applications, integrations, workflows, analytics and AI services live. Moving custom logic off the core and onto BTP — or retiring it — is a central part of any modern migration. It is also where custom code remediation pays off long-term, as covered in migrating custom ABAP code.
Go-live isn’t the finish line. It’s the moment your ERP becomes something AI agents can actually work with.
ESS ENN Associates AI Engineering Team
Joule and AI agents
Joule is SAP’s AI assistant and agent layer across its applications. Agents can help with tasks such as handling exceptions, preparing analyses and coordinating multi-step processes. SAP’s approach is deliberately multi-vendor: it has announced partnerships with providers including Anthropic, NVIDIA and Palantir, with agents connecting to tools through open standards such as the Model Context Protocol. That openness matters for anyone building custom agents alongside SAP’s own. Our approach to building them is described in deploying custom AI agents to production.
Why data and process clarity come first
Agents are only as good as the data and processes beneath them. Clean master data and well-understood processes are prerequisites, which is why data readiness is an investment in post-go-live value, not just a migration task. Process intelligence tools help identify where automation and agents will have the most effect.
Keeping the core clean
- Evaluate every new requirement against standard functionality first.
- Route custom needs through approved extensibility options, in a defined order.
- Review custom objects regularly and retire what is no longer used.
- Govern agents like software: scoped permissions, approvals for sensitive actions and full logging.
Our agentic process automation team helps organisations put agents to work on SAP processes once the core is clean.
ESS ENN Associates supports SAP S/4HANA programmes with AI-assisted assessment, custom-code and data remediation, and testing, through our AI agent development, data engineering and legacy modernisation teams. To plan your post-go-live roadmap, Contact us.