SAP’s AI offer to legacy customers comes with a catch

More than 20,000 SAP customers are “stuck” on legacy ECC systems due to customizations, according to the CEO of SAP partner MyWave, Geraldine McBride, and many won’t migrate anytime soon. At Sapphire 2026, SAP offered them a path to AI, but only if they commit half their maintenance spend to the cloud first. The offer, confirmed by SAP Chief Strategy Officer Sebastian Steinhaeuser during a media briefing, enables SAP to extend limited AI capabilities to customers still running its software on-premises during their transition to cloud ERP. But it comes with a significant condition: Customers must shift at least 50% of their maintenance spending to the cloud before they can enable Joule assistants on premises. It’s a another small crack in SAP’s resolve: For years, it has been upsetting customers using its legacy systems by telling them the only way to access its latest innovations is to migrate to its latest platform , S/4HANA, in the cloud. “There’s no confusion at all” about the lates