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SAP S/4HANA TM– Conversational planning using Generative AI!! step by step configuration walkthrough

HariPanakkal
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
4 weeks ago
3,209

Generative AI is rapidly transforming how enterprises operate, and at SAP, it is not viewed as a standalone innovation—but as an embedded, value-driving component across our business applications. With each release of SAP S/4HANA, new AI-powered features are being introduced to enhance user experience and optimize operations.

One such advancement is available in SAP S/4HANA Transportation Management 2023 FPS02 (currently available for private cloud deployments only). This release introduces a generative AI–driven enhancement aimed at improving the user experience via conversational transportation planning.

In this blog, we’ll explore this new feature in detail—including how it works, how to configure it, and how you can test it in your own landscape

Architecture

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As illustrated in the diagram, the Intelligent Scenario Lifecycle Management (ISLM) framework acts as the key integration layer connecting SAP S/4HANA Transportation Management (TM) with Business Technology Platform (BTP) Generative AI services. For this purpose, SAP delivers a standard ISLM scenario. The entire end-to-end process—from initiating AI requests to receiving intelligent transportation planning insights—is managed through a dedicated Generative AI profile within SAP TM, ensuring smooth orchestration and configuration.

⚙️Configuration Steps

To enable the generative AI-powered UI enrichment feature in SAP S/4HANA Transportation Management, follow these key configuration steps:

  1. Set Up Connection for the ISLM Scenario Using the Generative AI Hub Service Key
    1. Obtain Service Key
      Retrieve the service key from the Generative AI Hub. This key enables secure communication between your S/4HANA system and the AI services.
    2. Create Connection Mapping
      Configure the communication arrangement in S/4HANA by mapping the service key to the ISLM (Intelligent Scenario Lifecycle Management) scenario. This step establishes the link between S/4HANA and the AI Hub.
    3. Deploy and Activate ISLM Scenario
      Deploy the ISLM scenario and activate the necessary services within S/4HANA to enable generative AI functionalities.
  2. Configure the Generative AI Profile in SAP S/4HANA
    1. Define Capabilities and Group into Profiles
      Specify the required generative AI capabilities that your planners need and organize them into profiles for efficient management.
    2. Assign Profiles to Cockpit Page Layouts
      Link the created profiles to the relevant transportation cockpit page layouts. Add the necessary fields to the UI to display the dynamically enriched data from the AI.

🔧Prerequisites

Before diving into the configuration, ensure the following prerequisites are met:

  • Deployment Environment:
    Your SAP S/4HANA system must be deployed on Private Cloud Edition.
  • Generative AI Hub Access:
    You need access to the Generative AI Hub via the AI Core service via requesting to SAP as mentioned in the note 3573759.
  • S/4HANA User Setup:
    Ensure you have a user in SAP S/4HANA with the following:
    • The SAP_BR_ANALYTICS_SPECIALIST business role
    • The S-ISM-DEPL authorization (this can be on the same or a different user)

With the prerequisites in place, let’s now dive deeper into the detailed configuration and explore how to bring this powerful generative AI feature to life in your SAP S/4HANA Transportation Management system.

1. Connection setup for ISLM scenario using Generative AI hub service key in S/4HANA

1a.Obtain Service Key

Service key can be obtained by raising an SAP support ticket on component CA-S4H-BTPAI as mentioned in the Note 3573759.

1b. Create Connection Mapping

Once you have the service key, navigate to SPROABAP PlatformApplication ServerBasis ServicesIntelligent Scenario Lifecycle ManagementService Connection for Machine Learning InfrastructureMaintain Connection for an Intelligent Scenario. Click create and provide the details as shown with your own Service key

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Click Next and once connection is ready, you can test the connection. It must show ‘Ready’.

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1c. Deploy and activate ISLM scenario

Now you must activate the scenario.  Login to Fiori launchpad of your S/4HANA system and open ‘Intelligent Scenario Management’ app. Search for Intelligent scenario GENAI_TM_COPL_GPT4O

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Select the Scenario and on details screen, ‘Deploy’ it.

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It may take couple of minutes to finish deployment, until then status will be Deployment Pending.

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You can view the deployed model once done.

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That’s it!

Now let’s configure in TM on how to use this deployed scenario.

2.Configure Generative AI Profile in S/4HANA

Generative AI features will continue to be embedded in SAP Transportation Management across upcoming releases, with this initial delivery laying the critical foundation for future innovations. In essence, generative AI functionalities are configured as capabilities, where each capability is linked to a specific capability type and managed through an ISLM scenario.

2a.Define required capabilities and group them into a GenAI profile

As of now, below are the pre-delivered capabilities

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You may add the capabilities as you need via SPROTransportation ManagementBasic FunctionsGenerative Artificial IntelligenceDefine Generative AI Profile.

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Now, define a profile with type ‘Conversational Planning’ and assign the capabilities you need in the profile.

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2b.Assign Profiles to Cockpit Page Layouts

Next step is to link the profile to the transportation cockpit page layout.  Open app ‘Page Layout for Transportation Cockpit’ Fiori app and create a new layout or add the conversational planning profile created in earlier step to an existing layout.

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One of the standout innovations in this release is UI enrichment powered by Generative AI—bringing intelligence and flexibility directly into the transportation planning cockpit.

Traditionally, planners rely on a large set of data columns within the Freight Unit (FU) or Freight Order (FO) quadrants to make informed decisions. However, displaying too many columns upfront often leads to performance bottlenecks and a cluttered user interface.

With this new feature, SAP introduces a smarter approach. The cockpit now loads with just a single placeholder column—initially empty. Planners can then interactively enrich this column on demand using natural language commands. For example, a planner might say:
“Enrich freight unit with planned delivery date, destination location, and gross weight.”

The system then gathers the relevant information from backend services and dynamically fills the column with the requested data.

This on-demand enrichment:

  • Reduces UI load time and complexity
  • Improves overall system performance
  • Empowers planners with a cleaner, more personalized interface

You must activate this new dynamic column in the field catalog assigned to page layout.

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With this step, you are all done and ready to test the Generative AI capabilities in Transportation Cockpit!! You will see a new section 'Conversational Planning' in the transportation cockpit, with a textbox to type your prompt and a 'Submit' button. Also, a column 'Conversational Planning Response' under Freight unit, Freight order and resource quadrants. There will be clear messages on what it does and doesn't for every prompt submission.

Here are some examples.

Selecting Freight Unit and enrich additional data

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Select freight order and enrich data

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Planning FU to truck

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Some example prompts are;(deselect also works same way, same select prompt works the same way for freight unit and freight order)

select the stages going to <property of the location>

select the four heaviest stages

select the stages picked up on <property of date>

select the stages departing from <property of city>

select all stages from the warehouse in location <location>

select the freight unit stage going to region <property of state>

select the trucks with the highest weight capacity

select the trucks with the depot location in <property of location>

enrich all stages with the earliest pickup date and latest delivery date

enrich all freight units with the products

assign freight unit stages going out from <property of location> to freight order <enter a fitting property>

assign freight unit stages containing the product <property of product> to the <property of truck>/<property of freight order>

assign the freight unit stages from <property of location> to be picked up on <property of date> to the temperature-controlled truck with the highest capacity

These are just some samples, you can create prompts with the pattern of your choice and try out.

The integration of Generative AI capabilities into SAP S/4HANA Transportation Management marks a significant leap forward in optimizing transportation planning processes. Leveraging the Intelligent Scenario Lifecycle Management framework and the powerful GPT-4 Omni model, businesses can now achieve smarter, faster, and more adaptive planning outcomes.

This blog is part of a series of blogs on business AI use cases in SAP TM: Read the main Blog thread here.

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