Agentic AI and automated decision making go hand in hand. Whilst the productivity gains of this service are well documented, what is often forgotten are the key principles required to ensure SAP systems stay at audit–ready compliance, year on year.
Agents in SAP Are Still Users
A common misconception is that only physical, human touch SAP users constitutes measurable interaction with SAP systems. In reality AI Automation does not remove identity level user accountability within SAP’s security, licensing and audit frameworks.
During SAP audits, these users are assessed using the same criteria as human users:
| Audit Focus Area | What SAP Typically Examines |
|---|---|
| Authentication | How the user logs in and is technically secured |
| Authorization | Assigned roles compared to actual transaction usage |
| Logging | Whether system activity is traceable and attributable to individual users |
| License Type | Alignment of user activity with SAP contract license definitions |
| Governance | Evidence of ongoing review, controls, and access governance |
Organizations who do not prioritize user governance of this manner often find themselves exposed to a greater number of audit findings.
Authentication Without Authorization Control Creates Risk
Agentic systems frequently rely on technical or system users that are created quickly to enable automation. Over time, these users tend to accumulate excessive access, often without structured review. This creates three overlapping risk areas:
Risk Category Security Risk
Description Over-privileged accounts increase attack surface and weaken segregation of duties
Risk Category Licensing Risk
Description Incorrectly classified users can inflate SAP audit findings
Risk Category Compliance Risk
Description Lack of logging and evidence undermines audit defensibility
Because agents operate continuously and at scale, these risks compound faster than in traditional user models.
Why Agentic SAP Environments Need Structured User Management
The biproduct of agentic automation is not only improved process speeds but also increased user activity through transactions, API Calls and business object modifications. This means the effects of loosely created classifications can become inflated and incorrect user functionality selection can silently increase your license measurement and therefore spend.
The complexity businesses face is not failure in adhering to their own internal governance and processes to manage this additional risk. Rather, it is the difficulty in time constraint and widely insufficient resources which prevent consistent application across all operated business regions, systems, subsidiaries and teams.
The Role of SAP User Managed Service (SUMS)
The ITAA SAP User Managed Service (SUMS) gives you a consistent way to stay on top of user management, permissions and licenses. Instead of scrambling when an audit comes around or doing big cleanup projects occasionally, SUMS keeps you monitoring things continuously, using real, accurate data from your systems.
At its core, SUMS addresses three persistent challenges introduced by agentic systems:
Challenge Limited visibility into agent users
How SUMS Addresses It Full discovery of users across ECC and S/4HANA
Challenge Excess or unused authorizations
How SUMS Addresses It Validation of assigned versus used access
Challenge License misalignment
How SUMS Addresses It Accurate mapping of users to SAP license types
This approach ensures that agent users are governed with the same rigor as human users.
Establishing Evidence-Based Control Over Agent Users
One of the biggest issues auditors find in SAP isn’t that companies are doing the wrong thing, it’s that they can’t prove they’re doing the right thing. SUMS fixes that by giving you solid, defensible data about how people are using SAP.
Key oversight activities include:
- Identification of dormant, duplicate, and inactive users
- Ongoing review of technical and system users used by agents
- Authorization analysis to detect unused or excessive access
- Regular reporting to support internal governance and audit readiness
This allows organizations to demonstrate control, rather than attempt to justify assumptions during an audit.
Conclusion: Extending SAP User Governance Through ITAA SUMS
For companies bringing in AI automation, this approach helps make sure your innovation doesn’t run ahead of your controls. SUMS isn’t meant to replace your internal governance or advisory teams; it strengthens them by giving you the clear data and disciplined monitoring you need to manage SAP users at scale.
Find out more about the Itaa SUMS service – https://itaa.com/sap/sums/
Source – Designing Agentic Systems with a Human-Centered Approach
JNC offer a free 30-minute call with one of our expert consultants.
If you have any SAP licensing related questions, then get in touch.
Industry trusted SAP consultants
Start with an initial consultation to help you clearly understand the costs and benefits of fully leveraging SAP.
Connect with us
