Knowledge · Guide 4 of 8

Governing AI access to SAP

Once an AI answers questions using data from SAP, it becomes part of how the company is run. The same expectations then apply to it as to any other access to business data. It has to be controllable, traceable and bounded.

First rule: read, never write

An assistant that answers questions has no need for write access. Its job is to show what is in the system, not to create, approve or change documents.

That boundary sounds obvious, yet in practice it matters more than any other. It is the difference between a tool that informs and one that quietly intervenes in processes. Bridge therefore works strictly read-only.

Second rule: your own permissions apply

In SAP, not everyone sees everything. A procurement clerk sees her plants, a controller his cost centers, and pricing terms are often visible to only a few.

AI access must not override that order. Bridge therefore queries SAP as the user who is asking. Anything someone may not see in SAP, they will not see in Teams either.

Third rule: approved capabilities only

An AI with free access to arbitrary tables is hard to control. Nobody can say in advance which data it will draw on for an answer.

Bridge works instead with a defined catalog of business capabilities. Each one is tested and approved by the company. The AI understands the question and picks the right capability, but it never invents its own path to the data.

Fourth rule: every request is traceable

Who asked which question, when, and which data went into the answer? Those questions must be answerable at any time, for auditors as much as for your own quality assurance.

Bridge logs every request. That turns an AI assistant into a tool you can defend even in regulated environments.

Fifth rule: the data stays where it is

Bridge holds no data stores of its own and copies nothing out of SAP. Answers come live from the system and run inside your own Microsoft environment. No second copy of the data is created that would need maintaining and protecting.

The link to the AI Act

Many companies are building their AI governance right now, partly with the EU AI Act in mind. A tool that reads only, respects permissions, uses approved capabilities and logs every request fits into that governance rather than working around it. Our guide on xient.ai describes how AI governance is built as a whole.

Frequently asked questions

Can Bridge change data in SAP?

No. Bridge works strictly read-only.

Does every user see the same data?

No. Bridge queries SAP as the individual user, so exactly the permissions they hold in SAP apply.

Is SAP data copied or stored?

No. Answers come live from SAP and run inside your own Microsoft environment. Every request is logged.

Want to see what this looks like in your procurement? Request a demo