Employee representatives at SAP doubt that developers at the Walldorf-based company would work significantly more productively through the use of AI.

A statement by CEO Christian Klein that SAP developers' productivity had increased by 30 percent thanks to AI technology was "a metric we cannot understand," European Works Council Chairman and Supervisory Board member Andreas Hahn told the business magazine Capital. Furthermore, the internal rollout of Microsoft's Copilot, which serves as an internal AI tool, "is not yet fully completed," Hahn added. The works council warned against being driven by "hype" when it comes to the use of AI: "If I can use an AI, someone else can too. And the competition isn't sleeping."

Anyone who believes they can "deliver the same with fewer resources" and thus wants to free up development capacity could quickly be overtaken by their competitors – who, with a team that hasn't shrunk, would be able to deliver more and better products at a faster pace. Therefore, Hahn says, he "doesn't believe in major developer job cuts due to AI." As early as the beginning of 2024, the works council chairman had already declared that AI was not capable of "replacing jobs at SAP." At that time, the software company had launched a reduction program for up to 10,000 jobs, citing investments in AI as a reason for this. Hahn stated that he stands by his statement from last year. From the works council's perspective, however, the software company has so far "proceeded with a cool head," Hahn praised. He sees parallels between SAP and the internet hype: "People always say we missed the boat. But we simply thought about it for a while and then did it sensibly. And I hope it's the same here."