SAP Is Swapping Out Its Priciest AI Models. Customers Still Pay Per Completed Task.

SAP, which offers more than 70 AI models from providers including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, increasingly picks the cheapest one that does each task to standard, CFO Dominik Asam said, according to a published report.

SAP bills customers for each completed task, not for the computing behind it, the report said. Lower operating costs can improve SAP’s profitability, the report said. SAP expects the swaps to produce part of more than €2 billion (about $2.2 billion) in AI efficiency gains. Whether buyers share any of that saving is not stated.

Where do the cheaper models go?

SAP has replaced some of its most expensive models with cheaper ones, but only where performance stayed strong. Total AI spending is still expected to rise as customers use more AI. SAP’s stated target is healthy margins on growing volume, not an absolute cut in what it spends.

How much of the €2 billion do the swaps deliver?

The report did not say. It ties the €2 billion to the model changes, while CEO Christian Klein told analysts on the third-quarter call that SAP expects up to €3 billion in efficiency gains over two years from AI across engineering, sales, finance, HR and cloud operations. Neither figure comes with a breakdown by source.

Klein said SAP judges each model on performance, price and outcomes for the workload at hand, and does not commit customers to a single one.

How does model origin enter the choice?

Customers increasingly ask where the AI inside SAP’s software was built, Asam said in an interview in October. Government agencies and companies in regulated industries increasingly exclude models by origin, and European customers ask for local options. A US customer may refuse components built on Chinese models, while back-office work, SAP’s own included, can run on open-weight models from any source.

SAP wants models from every region, Europe and Canada among them, so it can offer governments and defense contractors a portfolio that fits their rules.

The cheapest model that meets the standard may not be one a regulated buyer accepts. A buyer’s origin rule therefore has to cover the models SAP selects inside its products, not only the ones the buyer picks itself.

Does a buyer’s SAP contract let the per-task price fall as SAP’s model costs fall, and let the buyer exclude models by origin?