AI Configurator Is Deprecated in 26C. Here Is What It Means for Prompts You Already Changed.

AI Configurator Is Deprecated in 26C. Here Is What It Means for Prompts You Already Changed.

The notification tells HCM customers to stop using it. It is far less clear about the work you have already done.

If you run Oracle Fusion HCM and anyone on your team has ever edited a prompt behind an embedded AI feature, you probably received a notification recently. Starting in Update 26C, AI Configurator is deprecated and replaced by AI Agent Studio. The immediate action listed is to stop using AI Configurator and make sure prompts are not propagated to production.

Clear enough on its own terms. The question it left our team with was a different one. What happens to the prompts we already modified? Do they stop working at 26C? Do we have to redo that work, and if so, by when?

The notice does not say. We had time scheduled with Oracle's AI product management team, so I asked. Between that conversation and the readiness documentation, here is the fuller picture.

What the documentation actually says

The 26C readiness note is worth reading directly rather than relying on the summary in the notification email. Several things in it matter.

AI Configurator is described as the built-in tool inside Oracle HCM Experience Design Studio, used for locally editing prompts for embedded AI features. It is deprecated in 26C.

If you previously configured prompts with it, the documentation is direct about what you owe. You must re-create and revalidate those configurations in AI Agent Studio. That is not framed as optional.

It also states that you retain access to AI Configurator so you can copy your prompts and reuse them in Agent Studio. This is not a case of the tool vanishing and taking your work with it.

What the documentation does not say is when. That is the part I wanted answered.

What Oracle told us about timing

Existing configurations do not stop working when 26C lands. That was stated plainly. There is no date on which your modified prompts revert to Oracle defaults and your users notice a difference.

The trigger for action is more specific than a release number. Today some of these embedded use cases call a completion endpoint. Oracle is progressively moving each use case over to the invoke agent and invoke sync APIs instead. When a use case you modified makes that move, your prompt change needs to already exist in Agent Studio, in the relevant LLM node, for it to keep applying.

So the re-creation the documentation asks for is real work you need to plan. The sequencing follows Oracle's migration of each individual use case rather than a single cutover date.

From an end user perspective, none of this is visible. Same experience, different plumbing underneath.

A short note on what AI Configurator was

Worth a detour, because plenty of people received this notification without a clear sense of what the tool did.

Fusion has embedded AI features throughout the interface, the ones sitting behind an AI Assist button. Goal setting is the example most people recognize. You click it and the system drafts goals in the SMART format, specific and measurable and the rest.

That formatting instruction lives in a prompt. Some organizations wanted a different structure, different language, or different emphasis for reasons of their own. AI Configurator existed so you could modify that prompt without involving Oracle.

If nobody at your organization ever opened it, this deprecation does not create work for you.

The practical sequence

This is the order we landed on, and I think it generalizes to most HCM customers in the same position.

1.        Build an inventory of what you actually modified. Which use cases, what changed, and why. This is the step people skip and it is the one that matters most.

2.        Copy the prompts out of AI Configurator. Put them somewhere you control rather than leaving them inside a tool being retired.

3.        If something cannot be recovered, ask Oracle. They confirmed they can retrieve prompts from the underlying tables if needed.

4.        Re-create and revalidate in Agent Studio, sequenced against Oracle moving each use case to the agent framework.

On the first step, the notification identified the environments where prompts had been configured, which is a helpful pointer, but it does not tell you which specific use cases were touched or what the change was. That inventory is yours to build.

I would also involve whoever asked for the original change rather than treating this as a purely technical exercise. Someone modified that prompt for a business reason. Migrating the text without carrying the reasoning forward means you cannot revalidate it properly, and revalidation is explicitly part of what Oracle is asking for.

The access requirement people will trip over

The readiness note contains one line that is easy to skim past. You must have access to use AI Agent Studio.

That access is not automatic. AI Configurator lived inside HCM Experience Design Studio. Agent Studio is a separate tool with its own access requirements. There is a reasonable chance the person who made your original prompt changes cannot get into Agent Studio today.

Sort that out before you reach the migration work rather than during it.

On cost

I asked directly whether maintaining these configurations after the move generates any additional charge. The answer was no.

The reasoning holds up. These embedded use cases are simple calls, summarization and short text generation, comfortably within what a hosted model handles. Oracle hosts a model for this category of work and treats calls to it differently from models it has to source externally. This kind of usage did not generate a bill before and does not after.

I have written separately about how that metering works, because it is the most misunderstood part of Fusion AI right now.

Why the destination is better than the origin

I will be honest that a deprecation notice with an unclear impact statement is irritating, and I said as much on the call. That said, where this lands is genuinely better, and the readiness documentation is specific about why.

·        Prompt configuration and agent configuration stop living in two separate tools.

·        Access control improves. Prompts inherit the same security model as agents, so an HCM administrator cannot configure prompts belonging to other product families. If you care about governance, that is substantive rather than cosmetic.

·        You get a broader range of models to choose from.

·        You can evaluate a prompt before publishing it. Editing prompt text in isolation and hoping for the best is how most of us have worked until now.

·        You get the full set of workflow nodes for editing, plus the ability to add and remove variables, which AI Configurator did not offer.

What I would still like to see

Two things, offered as the feedback I would want if our positions were reversed.

Clearer impact statements in deprecation communications. The notice told customers to stop using a tool without addressing the status of work already done with it. That single gap produced more internal speculation on our side than the migration itself will produce work. One sentence would have covered it.

Published sequencing for the underlying migration. Because the practical trigger is Oracle moving each use case to the agent framework, knowing which use cases move in which update would let customers plan instead of react. That timing is not visible from outside today.

Neither of these is a reason to be worried about the change. Both are the kind of thing that would make the next one land better because this change is actually a huge improvement and something to be excited about!

Where to read more

Oracle's 26C readiness note covering the deprecation and transition is at docs.oracle.com under the HCM 26C common technologies what's new, titled Deprecation of AI Configurator and Transition to AI Agent Studio.

If you received the notification and have not started, begin with the inventory. Everything else depends on knowing what you actually changed.

Based on Oracle's 26C readiness documentation and customer notification, combined with a working session between our team and Oracle's Fusion AI product management group in August 2026. Statements about migration timing and cost reflect that conversation and are not a substitute for Oracle's published guidance. Confirm specifics against your own environment and your Oracle account team. Views are my own.