SAP Freezes Most Hiring and Travel Because Its Own AI Token Bill Got Too Big

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An internal July 1 SAP email obtained by 404 Media cites 'rising token usage and costs as more AI-driven scenarios go live' as the reason for suspending most travel and new hiring, with exceptions carved out only for AI-related trips and core AI roles. A current SAP employee confirmed to 404 Media the bans remain in effect over a month later, and said SAP is now rolling out a new internal AI tool company-wide that will push costs higher still. This is the clearest signal yet that inference cost is a real P&L line item at enterprise scale, not a rounding error — a $30B+ software vendor is trading headcount and travel budget for tokens.