SAP recently unveiled several new embedded AI capabilities for its retail solutions, aimed at addressing evolving behaviors, unifying data, and enabling retailers to utilize agentic AI.
Announced ahead of the National Retail Federation’s Big Show 2026 event, the new features underscore a concerted effort by SAP to help its users in the commerce space to proactively adapt to market shifts and engage with their customers beyond traditional storefronts and digital channels.
Among the key product announcements:
- Retail Intelligence in SAP Business Data Cloud
- AI-assisted assortment management through Joule copilot
- Omnichannel sales promotions in sales orders
- Storefront MCP server for SAP Commerce Cloud
- Order Reliability Agent for SAP Order Management Services
Inside the Announcements
SAP’s retail announcements at NRF 2026 reveal a company preparing for an era in which customers increasingly shop through conversational AI rather than websites or apps.
For instance, a storefront MCP server for SAP Commerce Cloud makes product catalogs, inventory, pricing, and promotions accessible to AI platforms. The technology enables what SAP calls “agentic commerce,” allowing customers to shop through both the retailer’s site and third-party AI platforms, such as ChatGPT. As customers begin product searches with AI assistants rather than visiting branded storefronts, retailers must ensure their inventory and pricing are integrated wherever these interactions occur. This marks a shift from controlling the shopping experience on owned channels to engaging customers wherever they make buying decisions.
Supporting this vision of agentic commerce calls for extensive backend infrastructure where AI agents can access accurate data and coordinate across functions, which is where SAP’s announcements come further into focus.
In an official statement, Balaji Balasubramanian, President and Chief Product Officer for Customer Experience and Consumer Industries, SAP SE, said of the new features: “Retailers face a landscape where AI is no longer optional. SAP provides one closed-loop, AI-enhanced retail operating system that ties planning, execution, and engagement together. We put data and AI at the heart of retail, delivering speed, personalization, and growth across every channel and segment.”
Planning and Operations Get AI-Powered Intelligence
Retail Intelligence, a new solution in SAP Business Data Cloud launching in the first half of 2026, aggregates customer and supplier data with internal sales and inventory metrics. Designed for retailers and direct-to-consumer businesses, it draws from SAP and external systems and uses AI-generated simulations to help planners evaluate strategies before making inventory decisions.
By automating the planning process, the system aims to optimize stock levels and fulfillment rates without requiring heavy oversight from staff. The unified data approach addresses what analysts see as SAP’s structural advantage: rather than forcing retailers to integrate multiple point solutions, the system functions as an integrated operating environment where AI agents coordinate in the background.
For merchandising, SAP introduced AI-assisted assortment management through its Joule copilot. Merchants can manage product lifecycles using plain language requests rather than traditional interfaces, which enables general staff to handle routine adjustments while allowing senior merchants to focus on high-level strategy.
For fashion wholesalers and manufacturers specifically, SAP added improved capabilities for segmentation and manufacturing workflows alongside merchandising tools.
Unified Promotions, Proactive Fulfillment
SAP integrated its Omnichannel Promotion Pricing solution with S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, supporting promotions like bonus discounts across all channels. Pricing and promotional rules are maintained in a single authoritative record, regardless of where transactions occur.
The company also announced the Order Reliability Agent, which will be added to the SAP Order Management Services bundle in the second quarter of 2026. The agent detects and fixes errors proactively before delays occur, while also providing instant visibility into shipment progress and inventory locations for customer service teams.
The tool arrives as retailers manage both more demanding customers and increasingly elaborate delivery operations. When retailers have less control over how AI platforms present their brands to shoppers, delivering on promises matters even more for maintaining and building customer loyalty.
SAP describes these new features as “agentic autonomy with human oversight,” letting AI agents handle routine monitoring and resolution while people make decisions in situations that require judgment. SAP’s emphasis is on embedded intelligence rather than bolt-on AI tools, with each capability designed to function within a connected system where AI agents work together across planning, operations, and customer engagement.
For more information, read SAP’s official release here.