SAP customers warned AI agents could put costs on autopilot

"SAP has confirmed to The Register that AI Unit purchases are estimated based on the expected number of "agent actions for an autonomous domain." The company promised to introduce "Autonomous Domain Blueprints" that would help estimate costs in so-called "T‑shirt size guidance" indicative of the customer's scale of deployment."

"Depending on how SAP defines an 'action,' the number of events incurring fees risks quickly spiraling upwards. This would lead to unexpectedly increased costs, especially if SAP continues to charge higher unit prices for AI Units used in excess of the customer's contractual commitment, or if AI agents consume a digital access license."

"Moreover, the value a customer derives from an executed action might not match how SAP has priced that action. The research outfit has promised to update its analysis as SAP publishes more details about its pricing model. It is also waiting for a response to a fact review from the company."

"With the new platform comes a new commercial model in which SAP no longer charges according to how many users are authorized to access the platform, but by the value agents offer by completing "actions." Last week, the German ERP giant announced plans for its Autonomous Enterprise, including an AI platform for building and governing a suite of agents that do business work."

SAP is moving to a new commercial model for its Autonomous Enterprise AI platform. Billing will shift from authorized user counts to the value delivered by AI agents completing “actions.” SAP estimates AI Unit purchases based on the expected number of agent actions for an autonomous domain and plans to provide “Autonomous Domain Blueprints” with “T-shirt size guidance” to estimate costs by deployment scale. Gartner warns that costs could spiral if SAP defines an action in a way that counts many events. Gartner also warns that higher unit prices beyond contractual commitments and potential consumption of digital access licenses could increase expenses. Gartner further notes that the value customers get from an executed action may not align with how SAP prices that action.

Read at theregister