SAP identified at least $100 million in AI token risk.
An SAP blog post revealed a triple-digit-million-dollar financial risk tied to AI tokens.
Lukas Deutsch, Chief Controlling Officer at SAP, and David Imbert, CMO for SAP Financial Management, explained how the company controls that spending.
A small number of accounts drove much of the consumption, particularly power users and automated agents. Costly frontier-model choices pushed the bill higher, as did tool sprawl.
The response started with token capping and model routing. SAP also rationalised tools to "remove waste, preserve productive demand".
After rolling out AI developer tools, SAP reports a mid-double-digit percentage increase in pull-request merge rates. Adoption kept climbing despite the controls.
The executives wrote, "Token spend is not a technology line item. It is a strategic and operational investment decision."
Who in your organisation can name today which accounts are spending your AI budget?
Sources
Our file on SAP
- 20 Sept
SAP's chief executive said voice replaces much data entry in three years.
- 19 Sept
KPMG cut jobs in its SAP and AI teams. Partners averaged £880,000.
- 17 Sept
Broadcom raised VMware prices by 10x or more, European cloud providers say.
- 17 Sept
Grocery Outlet's SAP launch cut gross margin by almost 2 points.
- 11 Sept
Zeiss dropped the clean rebuild of its SAP after about €200 million.
Every story here is open to read. The ERP LEADERS brief goes one step further.
One ERP programme per issue, laid out for a steering committee. Issue 01 is the Zeiss case. Read issue 01 or sign up for the brief.
Welcome back. · Issue 01