SAP Connect 2026: finance Joule Assistants and SAP Pay bring AI and payments into the ERP

Global reference

• Vendor: SAP
• Topic: AI assistants for finance and a payment service inside SAP Cloud ERP
• Key date: Announced 6 October 2026 at SAP Connect, Las Vegas
• Status: SAP Pay launched; finance assistants arrive in stages to the first quarter of 2027, according to SAPinsider

What SAP announced

• Joule Assistants for finance: SAP says controllers can automate revenue recognition, disclosures and trade compliance.
• Accounts Receivable Assistant: Nestle, quoted by SAP, says it can prioritise collections by risk and business context and recommend next actions.
• Billing Assistant: developed with PwC, which says it helps to identify potential billing issues earlier.
• International Trade Assistant: SAP reports up to 50% less trade classification effort in early deployments.
• SAP Enterprise Financial Consolidation: statutory and management consolidation, due in the first quarter of 2027 according to SAPinsider.
• Joule Work is starting its customer rollout.

SAP Pay

• A payment service embedded in SAP Cloud ERP, powered by Tereina, an SAP company.
• It executes and reconciles the payment in the same workflow when an invoice is due.
• ERP Today reports that it is available now in the United States and the United Kingdom, supports ACH, wire and cheque payments and stablecoin settlement for cross-border payments, does not support credit cards, and needs SAP Multi-Bank Connectivity.
• SAPinsider reports that the first customer, Winncom Technologies, went live in about a month.

Timing

• Accounting, revenue and project assistants: fourth quarter of 2026 or first quarter of 2027, depending on the assistant, with early adopters first (SAPinsider).
• International Trade Assistant: fourth quarter of 2026 (SAPinsider).
• Treat these as reported plans, and confirm dates with SAP.

What to do now

• Ask your SAP account team which assistants are included in your licence, and when each one is due.
• Compare them with any third-party AI tools you are assessing for the same tasks before you sign.
• Treasury: review how SAP Pay would change bank connectivity, payment approval and segregation of duties before any pilot.
• Take accounting, tax and regulatory advice before using stablecoin settlement.
• Keep human approval on revenue recognition judgements and disclosures.

Our take

AI is moving into the ERP itself. For SAP customers the question is no longer whether to add AI to finance, but which features to switch on, in what order, and with what controls. Payments inside the ERP is the bigger change: it shortens the process, and it also concentrates risk in one system.

Important. This summary is for general information and is not technology, legal or financial advice. It is based on public SAP information, together with press reports, and may be incomplete or out of date. Check the original sources, and take professional advice, before acting.