Oracle has unveiled the developments planned for the May 2026 update of its Oracle EPM Cloud platform. Following a significant wave of announcements the previous month, this new version focuses more on operational improvements, process automation and the integration of artificial intelligence features.
The updates will be deployed to test environments from 1 May 2026, followed by production environments from 15 May 2026.
A new environment backup feature
Oracle is introducing a new mechanism called Environment Backup. Unlike traditional snapshots, this backup is performed at the physical environment level and includes both data and artefacts.
This development could provide greater flexibility when restoring environments and simplify certain Oracle EPM Cloud administration operations.
In addition, Oracle is also adding:
- a new
restoreEnvironmentcommand in EPM Automate; - support for Environment Backup backups in the REST APIs;
- compatibility with environment cloning operations.
Artificial intelligence continues to be integrated into Oracle EPM
The May 2026 Oracle EPM update extends Generative AI features to several new Oracle cloud environments, including the OC4, OC19, OC29 and OC42 regions.
Oracle is also continuing to develop intelligent assistants integrated into its EPM solutions.
Narrative Reporting Assistant
The new assistant dedicated to narrative reporting can, in particular:
- search for artefacts through a conversational interface;
- query reports;
- generate automatic summaries;
- refresh data sources;
- run bursting processes.
However, this feature remains restricted to customers who also have a Fusion Cloud subscription.
PCM Interrogation Assistant
Oracle is also announcing an assistant designed to create AI agents capable of interacting with EPM applications. These agents can, in particular, automate certain tasks, retrieve data or trigger actions in applications.
Improvements to pipelines and automation
Several optimisations concern processing pipelines.
Users will now be able to:
- restart a pipeline directly from the step that failed;
- add wait times between different tasks to improve the management of sequential processes.
These developments aim to reduce operational interruptions and improve the efficiency of automated processing.
Support for Essbase rules in cloud applications
One of the most notable announcements is the addition of support for Essbase Load Rules in cloud applications.
Until now, companies migrating from on-premise environments had to recreate these rules manually through Data Integration. Oracle will now enable them to be migrated directly to the cloud, which should simplify EPM modernisation projects.
Mandatory update to the Groovy engine
As previously announced by Oracle, the May 2026 release includes a mandatory update to the Groovy engine.
This new version introduces stricter validation rules. Organisations using custom scripts will therefore need to check the compatibility of their developments before moving to production.
Smart View and Narrative Reporting also updated
Oracle is also releasing new versions of the extensions:
- EPM Books for Smart View;
- Narrative Reporting for Smart View.
The publisher recommends that users update them promptly to benefit from the latest fixes and improvements.
Oracle announces the deprecation of certain Workforce rules
Finally, Oracle confirms that several legacy Workforce rules will be progressively phased out by the end of 2026.
Customers using applications created before December 2024 are encouraged to migrate to the “2.0” versions of the relevant rules in order to continue benefiting from future platform developments.
With this update, Oracle EPM continues to enhance its platform around automation, cloud environment resilience and the gradual integration of artificial intelligence into financial planning and reporting processes.
source: Paul Lewis, Oracle EPM expert / consultant
