Companies × risks
SAP
SAP deploys AI by embedding and orchestrating partner LLMs across its enterprise product suite through Joule (interoperable with Microsoft 365 Copilot) and its Generative AI Hub (accessing Bedrock models). It also develops specialised models including SAP-RPT-1, a pre-trained relational foundation model for enterprise data.
We reviewed 16 public documents from SAP and found it acknowledges 15 of 24 AI risks, including discrimination and capability & robustness.
Sector: Information
Roles: AI deployer; Specialized AI developer
AI risks SAP acknowledges
- Discrimination: “The most well-known example of discrimination by intelligent software is the exclusion of historically underrepresented groups in job application processes. The historical data with which the AI is trained may reflect the biased selection criteria of the past. Therefore, it is theoretically possible that the AI may adopt and reproduce these biases for its own selection process.” (The Ethical Side of AI at SAP | SAP News Center)
- Capability & robustness: “There are two major technical risks intrinsic to GenAI... lack of determinism. If these risks are left unmitigated, they will severely impede forensic analysis and security testing efforts.” (SAP Generative AI Cybersecurity Strategy)
- Loss of privacy: “data may accidentally become embedded within a GenAI model during training or development. As a result, GenAI training data is at risk of exfiltration...” (SAP Generative AI Cybersecurity Strategy)
- Environmental harm: “the growing demand for energy due to the increasing use of artificial intelligence could have a negative impact on GHG emissions in the upstream supply chain” (SAP Integrated Report 2025)
- Disinformation & influence: “Human surveillance ... utilized for targeting individuals or groups, either by biometrics, facial recognition, or other identifiable features, with the purpose of disregarding or abusing the rights of the individuals or groups.” (SAP AI Ethics Handbook 2025)
- AI security vulnerabilities: “These attacks can be conducted directly or by placing adversarial prompts in web page content scraped by an autonomous agent.” (SAP Generative AI Cybersecurity Strategy)
- Loss of human agency: “subliminal techniques, purposefully manipulative or deceptive techniques that influences the behaviour of a person/group aiming to subvert and impair individual's autonomy, decision-making and free choice” (SAP AI Ethics Handbook May 2026)
- Toxic content: “prevent the AI from making... inappropriate, or offensive suggestions... and block any inappropriate ones before they reach the user.” (SAP AI Ethics Handbook 2025)
- False information: “Generative AI creates believable images and videos of events that never occurred. This has the potential to create misinformation” (SAP's Response to the Safe and Responsible AI Discussion Paper ...)
- Fraud & scams: “We may therefore see a rise in spear phishing campaigns... An unsuspecting victim may be easily convinced if targeted via multiple channels in a single coherent real-time and interactive attack.” (SAP Generative AI Cybersecurity Strategy)
- Transparency & interpretability: “We know less about how decisions are ultimately made when it comes to AI than we do when it comes to conventional software," Wieczorek says.” (The Ethical Side of AI at SAP | SAP News Center)
- Weapons & cyberattacks: “Intelligence gathering also extends to software by discovering new security flaws in code repositories. Increase in attack sophistication GenAI may enable adversaries to create personalized attacks at far less cost in time and effort.” (SAP Generative AI Cybersecurity Strategy)
- Overreliance & unsafe use: “With GenAI, human error can extend to misplaced trust in generated output. Adversaries can take advantage of this trust...” (SAP Generative AI Cybersecurity Strategy)
- Devaluation of human creativity: “our use of AI technology ... may result in disputes with respect to ownership or intellectual property, or exposure to claims of copyright or other intellectual property misappropriation.” (SAP Integrated Report 2025)
- Unequal performance: “Test multilingual performance and guardrails, accounting for gendered language, low-resource languages, and cultural nuances.” (SAP AI Ethics Handbook May 2026)
Documents we reviewed
- Ethical Usage of AI in the Recruiting Process | Careers at SAP (Corporate policy, 2025)
- Introducing Responsible AI at SAP (Other, 2025)
- Putting AI Ethics into Practice at SAP (Other, 2025)
- SAP's Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence (AI overview & principles, 2024)
- SAP Updates AI Ethics Policy Based on UNESCO | SAP News (Other, 2024)
- SAP AI Ethics Handbook May 2026 (Other, 2026)
- Updated SAP AI Ethics Handbook | SAP News Center (Other, 2024)
- Responsible AI | SAP (AI overview & principles, 2025)
- SAP AI Ethics Handbook 2025 (Other, 2025)
- SAP Integrated Report 2025 (Annual report, 2026)
- The Ethical Side of AI at SAP | SAP News Center (Other, 2024)
- SAP's Response to the Safe and Responsible AI Discussion Paper ... (Other, 2025)
- SAP Generative AI Cybersecurity Strategy (AI governance, 2024)
- SAP Business AI Responsible AI frequently asked questions (AI overview & principles, 2026)
- SAP Global AI Ethics Policy (AI governance, 2024)
- Engaging with SAP's Guiding Principles for Responsible AI (Other, 2025)