SAP’s migration pitch has changed. The old argument was about support deadlines. The new argument is about AI. Stay on ECC and you miss the AI revolution. Migrate to clean-core S/4HANA and unlock the future.
There’s some substance to that. SAP Joule — their AI assistant and agent platform — gates its most capable features behind clean-core S/4HANA Cloud. SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC), the unified data fabric announced at Sapphire 2025, requires the full SAP cloud stack. Together they form what SAP calls the “AI flywheel”: apps generate data, data fuels AI, AI enhances apps, the cycle compounds.
But there are gaps in the argument. This article asks the question SAP’s marketing doesn’t: which AI capabilities actually require migration, and which can you get without it? It’s part of our complete guide to SAP ECC end of support and what comes next, which covers the full decision landscape from the 2027 deadline through migration paths and alternatives.
Two things are worth putting on the table here. First, composable ERP — open API architectures that let you run agentic AI workflows on top of SAP ECC without a clean-core migration (covered in depth in the SAP alternatives SAP will not tell you about). Second, AI-assisted modernisation tools like Microsoft’s COBOL Agentic Migration Factory (CAMF), which show that AI can be used to accelerate migration rather than as a reward that only arrives after it.
By the end, you’ll be able to answer: what AI do I actually need, and does that require S/4HANA?
What Is SAP’s Actual AI Argument for Migrating to S/4HANA?
SAP’s position at Sapphire 2025 is pretty clear. Access advanced AI — specifically Joule’s autonomous agents and Business Data Cloud — and you need a clean-core S/4HANA cloud deployment plus the SAP BDC data architecture. Everything else leaves you on the wrong side of a capability gap.
The causal chain goes like this: ABAP customisations in ECC block clean-core compliance → clean core gates Joule’s advanced features → advanced Joule plus BDC form the AI flywheel. Forrester puts it bluntly — SAP’s most advanced AI capabilities are “unequivocally gated behind a clean core and cloud-native architecture.”
The partnership announcements at Sapphire 2025 — Palantir, Perplexity AI, NVIDIA — are ecosystem signals, not capability unlocks. They don’t change the clean-core requirement for ECC customers.
The question to carry through: are these prerequisites technically necessary, or are they also commercial gatekeeping?
What Is SAP Joule and Which Features Actually Require Clean-Core S/4HANA?
SAP Joule is SAP’s AI assistant and agent platform — embedded across SAP’s cloud applications as a natural-language interface and autonomous agent layer. As of Q4 2025, it has over 350 AI features and more than 2,400 Joule skills.
“Joule requires clean core” is too vague to be useful. Joule has a tiered capability architecture, and the distinction matters.
Basic Joule — conversational ERP queries, contextual help, and guided transactions — is accessible in applications connected to SAP BTP, without requiring S/4HANA Cloud.
Advanced Joule — autonomous multi-step agent workflows, predictive business process intelligence, and BDC-integrated analytics — requires S/4HANA Cloud with clean-core compliance. This includes domain-specific autonomous agents across finance, HR, and supply chain, plus Joule Studio (GA in Q4 2025) and bidirectional integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot.
So the specific gate is Joule’s autonomous agent capabilities and its BDC integration — not Joule as a conversational assistant.
There’s a cost layer that rarely shows up in migration proposals: SAP Joule’s advanced features are priced on an AI Units consumption basis, on top of RISE with SAP subscription charges. Model that before you calculate your AI ROI.
One more thing. 75% of UKISUG members call AI strategic for the next three years. The same 75% believe it is “completely overhyped in terms of delivering business value.” Forrester corroborates that SAP AI adoption remains modest relative to the installed base. So there’s a bit of collective hedging going on.
What Is SAP Business Data Cloud and What Does It Demand From Your Data Architecture?
SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC), announced at Sapphire 2025, is SAP’s unified data fabric: Databricks, SAP Datasphere, SAP Business Warehouse, and SAP Analytics Cloud — harmonising data across SAP and non-SAP systems through the SAP Knowledge Graph.
SAP’s AI flywheel argument depends on BDC. Forrester calls it “the nonnegotiable data foundation” — “SAP’s entire Business AI vision and its promised value is predicated upon it.”
What BDC actually demands from you: clean-core S/4HANA as the source system. ECC data structures are incompatible with BDC’s harmonisation layer. BDC is relatively new, and Forrester notes SAP has not fully clarified its approach to AI security and data sovereignty within it. BDC and Joule together also create deep dependency on the full SAP cloud stack. SAP is shifting from “vendor with useful ERP” to “enterprise AI operating system vendor.” That’s a different kind of relationship.
Ask yourself honestly: does your AI use case require enterprise-wide data harmonisation through SAP’s native semantic layer? If the use case is narrower, the migration investment to access BDC may not be justified.
Can AI Be Used to Modernise Legacy Systems Instead of Just Rewarding You After Migration?
SAP presents AI as what you get after migrating. But there’s a whole category of tools that flips this: AI used to accelerate migration rather than as a post-migration reward.
The best-documented open example is Microsoft’s COBOL Agentic Migration Factory (CAMF) — an open-source multi-agent system for migrating legacy COBOL code to Java, available at aka.ms/cobol on GitHub. Built on Microsoft Semantic Kernel, it runs three cooperating agents: COBOLAnalyzerAgent (scans COBOL files), JavaConverterAgent (converts COBOL to Java Quarkus), and DependencyMapperAgent (analyses relationships and generates architectural diagrams).
The Bankdata case study gives this real-world credibility. Bankdata — a technology company established by a consortium of Danish banks — had over 70 million lines of COBOL on mainframe and provided real COBOL modules for the CAMF proof of concept. AI agents generated converted code; domain experts validated business logic throughout.
A precision point that matters: CAMF is a COBOL-to-Java tool, not an SAP ABAP migration tool. Its relevance to the SAP ECC question is analogical — it proves AI agents can automate legacy code analysis and conversion at scale. There is no equivalent tool for SAP ABAP customisations at the same maturity level.
AWS Transform for Mainframe, launched May 2025, is the hyperscaler-backed equivalent targeting mainframe COBOL — not SAP ABAP. Source coverage is thinner than for CAMF. Both tools prove the class of AI-assisted modernisation works, which is the point.
Can Composable ERP and Agentic AI Deliver Real AI Value Without S/4HANA Migration?
Composable ERP — a Gartner term — decouples ERP processes into modular services accessed via open APIs rather than relying on a monolithic integrated suite. Keep the stable transactional core. Layer modern best-of-breed modules and AI workflows on top.
The “AI without migration” argument is straightforward: open API architectures let agentic AI workflows connect to SAP ECC without clean-core S/4HANA. AI agents call APIs to read ERP data, trigger transactions, and chain business processes. None of this technically requires an S/4HANA core.
Kingfisher — operators of Screwfix and B&Q — is the most concrete published example. Kingfisher moved its core ECC system to Google Cloud with Rimini Street support, added AI and personalisation engines, and is already seeing benefits without migrating to S/4HANA.
The Rimini Street/Freeform Dynamics global study of 455 SAP customers found 83% see clear value in composable approaches for faster AI access. Worth noting: Rimini Street is a third-party SAP support vendor with a commercial interest in the “don’t migrate” argument, so treat those statistics as directionally valid rather than neutral.
The honest trade-off: composable ERP plus agentic AI on ECC will not give you SAP Joule’s native capabilities or SAP BDC’s harmonised data layer. It gives you a different AI capability profile — more flexible, lower cost, faster to implement — but it does not replicate SAP’s native semantic layer. That’s not a knock on composable ERP. It’s just a different path to different outcomes.
AI-Assisted Modernisation Landscape: How Do the Options Compare?
Here’s how the four AI-to-ERP approaches stack up.
SAP Joule + BDC requires full clean-core S/4HANA Cloud migration. Most capable — and deepest lock-in. Primary use case: deep SAP-native AI across finance, HR, and supply chain with enterprise data harmonisation. Advanced features are new; adoption remains modest.
Composable ERP + agentic AI layer requires no migration, works with ECC via open APIs, and is production-proven — Rimini Street Agentic AI ERP is commercially available and Kingfisher is a live case study.
AI-assisted migration tools (CAMF class) don’t replace ECC — they accelerate migration itself. CAMF is COBOL-to-Java, not ABAP; production at scale for SAP ABAP is not yet established.
AWS Transform for Mainframe targets mainframe COBOL, not SAP code. Launched May 2025, less documented than CAMF.
The composable ERP path has the most real-world evidence right now. SAP Joule plus BDC represents the deepest SAP-native AI capability — but it’s new, adoption is modest, and AI governance within BDC is still evolving.
Do You Actually Need to Migrate to S/4HANA to Get the AI Value You Need?
It depends entirely on which AI capabilities your business actually needs — not which capabilities SAP is marketing.
SAP’s migration-for-AI argument is strongest when you need deep, integrated SAP-native AI across finance, supply chain, and HR simultaneously; when BDC’s enterprise-wide data harmonisation is specifically what you’re after; and when you’re already on a path to clean-core S/4HANA for other reasons, making the AI capabilities incremental value on top of an already-justified investment.
SAP’s migration-for-AI argument is weakest when your required AI use cases are narrow — one or two automated processes, or targeted analytics on ECC data; when composable ERP plus a third-party agentic layer can deliver equivalent value; and when the migration investment can’t be justified on AI benefits alone.
Three questions to work through before accepting SAP’s AI argument:
1. Which specific AI capabilities does your business actually need in the next 12–24 months? Not what looks impressive in a demo — the use cases with a quantified business outcome attached. If the use cases are narrow and process-specific, the full Joule plus BDC stack may be far more than you need.
2. Can those capabilities be delivered via composable ERP plus agentic AI on ECC? Conversational ERP queries, guided process automation, API-driven AI workflows don’t require clean-core S/4HANA. Autonomous multi-step Joule agents across finance, HR, and supply chain simultaneously — these do.
3. What is the total cost comparison? Migration plus AI Units consumption plus RISE subscription fees versus the composable alternative, measured against concrete business outcomes. If the composable path delivers 80% of the value at 20% of the cost, the migration decision is a business trade-off, not a technical inevitability.
Migration is the right path to SAP’s AI. It is not the only path to AI value in an ERP environment. For a broader view of how AI is reshaping the enterprise software landscape itself — and what the SAP crisis signals about the future of monolithic ERP — see whether monolithic ERP is architecturally obsolete.
For the broader strategic context — end-of-support implications, migration paths, and how this AI question connects to the full ECC decision — see our SAP ECC migration series.
FAQ
Do I need to migrate to SAP S/4HANA to use AI?
Not for all AI use cases. SAP’s most advanced AI (Joule autonomous agents, SAP Business Data Cloud) requires clean-core S/4HANA Cloud. Agentic AI on top of SAP ECC via composable architecture is achievable without migration. The key question: does your use case specifically require SAP-native AI, or is the value available via an open API plus agentic layer?
What is SAP Joule and what can it do?
SAP Joule is SAP’s AI assistant and agent platform. Basic capabilities — natural language queries, contextual guidance, guided transactions — are accessible in BTP-connected environments without S/4HANA. Advanced capabilities — autonomous agent workflows, BDC-integrated analytics — require S/4HANA Cloud with clean-core compliance, and are priced on an AI Units consumption model on top of RISE subscription charges.
Can I get AI capabilities without migrating from SAP ECC?
Yes — via composable ERP architecture and third-party agentic AI layers. Kingfisher (operators of Screwfix and B&Q) moved ECC to Google Cloud with Rimini Street support and added AI engines without migrating to S/4HANA. The trade-off: composable ERP will not replicate SAP Joule’s native capabilities or BDC’s data harmonisation layer.
What is SAP Business Data Cloud and do I need it for AI?
BDC is SAP’s unified data fabric announced at Sapphire 2025: Databricks plus SAP Datasphere plus Business Warehouse plus SAP Analytics Cloud, harmonised through the SAP Knowledge Graph. It requires clean-core S/4HANA as the source system; ECC data structures are incompatible with BDC’s harmonisation layer. If your AI use case requires enterprise-wide data harmonisation through SAP’s native stack, BDC is relevant. If your needs are narrower, it may not be necessary.
What is Microsoft CAMF and how is it different from SAP migration tools?
CAMF (COBOL Agentic Migration Factory) is Microsoft’s open-source AI agent framework for migrating COBOL code to Java, built on Semantic Kernel and available at aka.ms/cobol on GitHub. It is a COBOL-to-Java tool — not an SAP ABAP migration tool. There is no equivalent AI-assisted tool for SAP ABAP customisations at the same maturity level.
What is AWS Transform for Mainframe and how does it compare to CAMF?
AWS Transform for Mainframe (launched May 2025) automates COBOL-to-Java and JCL-to-Groovy conversion — like CAMF, it targets mainframe COBOL, not SAP ABAP. Both represent AI-assisted modernisation: using AI to accelerate migration rather than as a post-migration reward. Independently verified benchmarks for AWS Transform are less available than for CAMF.
What does “clean core” mean in SAP and why does it matter for AI?
Clean core is SAP’s architectural mandate for S/4HANA: no unsupported ABAP modifications in the core; all custom extensions built via SAP BTP. Joule’s advanced autonomous agent capabilities and SAP BDC both require clean-core compliance. Brownfield migrations (approximately 34%) carry ABAP customisations forward; only greenfield reimplementations (approximately 18%) typically achieve clean core. Choosing the right migration approach is therefore a direct determinant of which AI capabilities you can access post-migration.
What is composable ERP and how is it different from migrating to S/4HANA?
Composable ERP (Gartner term) decouples ERP processes into modular services accessed via open APIs. You keep the stable transactional core and layer modern best-of-breed modules and AI workflows on top via APIs. 83% of SAP customers see composable approaches as a faster path to AI value (Rimini Street/Freeform Dynamics, 455 SAP customers). The trade-off: composable ERP does not provide SAP’s native AI features (Joule, BDC).
How is agentic AI relevant to ERP modernisation?
Agentic AI refers to autonomous AI systems that execute multi-step workflows without human intervention — reading data, triggering transactions, and chaining processes across systems. AI agents can interface with SAP ECC via APIs to automate tasks like invoice matching and demand forecasting without requiring S/4HANA. Third-party agentic platforms can connect via open APIs without migration.
Is SAP Joule available on SAP ECC or only on S/4HANA?
SAP Joule is not available as a native feature of SAP ECC. Basic Joule functionality is accessible in applications connected to SAP BTP, but advanced capabilities require S/4HANA Cloud with clean-core compliance. ECC customers who want native Joule must migrate; those who want AI without migration must pursue a composable or third-party agentic approach.
What did SAP announce at Sapphire 2025 about AI?
SAP Sapphire 2025 in Orlando: SAP Business Data Cloud (integrating Databricks, Datasphere, Business Warehouse, and SAP Analytics Cloud); extensions to Joule’s autonomous agent capabilities tied to clean-core S/4HANA; Joule Studio reaching General Availability. Partnerships included Palantir, Perplexity AI, and NVIDIA. Forrester’s assessment: the announcements strengthen SAP’s AI narrative but don’t resolve the adoption gap.
