SAP is rapidly expanding the role of AI across its portfolio. Joule is evolving beyond an AI assistant, with Joule Agents designed to perform tasks, automate workflows and work across business processes. As these capabilities become more established, the conversation needs to move beyond what AI agents can do. Organizations also need to ask who is responsible for them.

Who can deploy an agent? What systems and data can it access? How is its activity monitored? What does it cost to run? And who is responsible for ensuring it continues to operate within the organizations controls? These questions make SAP AI governance an increasingly important consideration as organizations move from experimenting with AI to using it within day-to-day business operations.

Understanding SAP AI Consumption and Cost

Certain SAP Premium AI capabilities use AI Units, with consumption determined by how eligible AI functionality is used. As organizations introduce more agents and automate more processes, that consumption can increase. This makes it important to understand which AI capabilities are being used, how consumption is developing and whether the value being generated justifies the investment. Without that visibility, organisations risk allowing SAP AI consumption to grow without the same level of scrutiny applied to other areas of their software estate.

Bringing SAP AI into wider SAM and commercial governance processes can help organisations improve visibility of usage and entitlement, establish clear ownership, identify optimisation opportunities and use reliable data to support future purchasing and renewal decisions.

Bringing SAP AI Into Your SAM Strategy 

SAP AI agents should not be treated as an isolated technology project. As they become embedded within everyday SAP processes, they also become part of the wider software estate that organisations need to understand and manage. Applying established SAM principles can help organisations maintain visibility of what is being used, how consumption is changing and where costs are developing.

ITAA’s independent SAM specialists can assess existing SAM capability, identify gaps across people, processes, governance, technology and data and help organisations establish the structure needed to manage increasingly complex environments. As SAP continues to expand Joule and its AI agent ecosystem, organisations need to consider not only what their AI agents can do, but how they will be governed, monitored and managed commercially. ITAA can help provide the visibility and governance needed to bring SAP AI into the wider management of the software estate.

How We Can Help at ITAA 

ITAA can help organizations bring SAP AI into their wider SAM and commercial governance strategy. This includes assessing current SAM capabilities, identifying gaps across governance, processes, data and ownership and improving visibility of SAP AI usage and consumption. With clearer oversight, organizations can better understand costs, manage risk and make informed decisions as their use of SAP AI grows.