SAP Attempts To Control AI Spending By Spending More On AI

WALLDORF, Germany — SAP, one of the world’s biggest software companies, suspended most travel and hiring last month over soaring AI costs, with one exception: travel and hiring related to AI.

The policy, described in an internal email obtained by 404 Media, permits an employee to fly to a conference about AI spending but not to visit a customer. It permits the company to hire someone to manage AI costs but not someone to do the work the AI was purchased to accelerate. A current SAP employee confirmed the bans remain in effect and were raised again at a recent global employee meeting, which everyone attended remotely because of the travel freeze.

The same employee said SAP is now rolling out a newly created AI tool to the entire company, “which I can only imagine massively increases the costs.” The tool qualifies as an AI-related expenditure and is therefore exempt from the freeze it will make worse. The policy does not specify the point at which this process is expected to reduce spending.

SAP is not alone. Other companies have begun limiting employees’ AI usage as bills climb, introducing usage caps and other controls for software they adopted on the premise that it would make employees dramatically more productive. Companies are now attempting to calculate the savings from AI while simultaneously restricting how much anyone is allowed to use it.

At press time, the only SAP employees permitted to board a plane were the ones going to explain why nobody else could.

Based on reporting by 404 Media.