SAP’s AI Pivot Faces Shareholder Ire as Stock Trades 45% Below Peak

SAP faces investor scrutiny over AI roadmap at AGM, announces strategic shift at Sapphire conference, while stock trades near €150 after steep losses.

The mood at SAP’s annual general meeting on Tuesday was a study in contrasts. Applause greeted the supervisory board’s re-election, but the executive team faced pointed questions over the company’s artificial intelligence strategy — just as the stock continues to nurse deep losses from its 52-week high.

Investor representatives from the Deutsche Schutzvereinigung für Wertpapierbesitz and DekaBank pressed management for clarity, arguing the AI roadmap lacked a coherent thread. They wanted specifics: what will SAP’s business model look like in 2030, and how does the Walldorf-based giant plan to fend off specialized AI upstarts? Chief executive Christian Klein pushed back, noting that 60% of cloud revenue is already tied to consumption-based metrics. His broader message was blunt — no job at SAP will remain as it is today.

The tension comes as SAP prepares to unveil a strategic shift at its Sapphire conference in Orlando next week. The company is expected to announce that AI tools will become available to customers still running software on their own servers, including users of the legacy ECC platform. That marks a clear departure from the previous cloud-only approach, under which SAP had aggressively pushed clients toward migration. The about-face is designed to accelerate AI adoption across a wider customer base and defend market share.

Analysts at Barclays and UBS remain broadly constructive on the stock, with price targets ranging from €205 to €220 — well above the current level of €149.76. Barclays analyst Sven Merkt reiterated an “Overweight” rating and a €220 target, pointing to the recent acquisitions of Dremio and Prior Labs as moves that strengthen the data foundation for AI agents. He cautioned, however, that execution risks remain and it will take years before these investments show up in the bottom line.

The stock managed a 1.5% gain on Tuesday, trading near €150 and briefly crossing above its 20-day moving average — a modest technical bright spot. But the broader picture remains grim. The shares have lost nearly 45% since hitting a 52-week high of €271.60, and the year-to-date decline stands at roughly 26%. An overbought RSI reading of almost 76 suggests the recent bounce could attract profit-taking.

On the financial front, SAP is sticking to its full-year target of around €10 billion in free cash flow. Shareholders will vote on a proposed dividend of €2.50 per share. The company also warned of a slight slowdown in cloud growth during the second quarter, as positive one-off effects from the first quarter fall away.

The supervisory board changes passed with little drama. René Obermann was elected with over 99% of the vote, while the search for a permanent chairman continues — Punit Renjen is expected to take the role after an interim period.

For investors, next week’s Sapphire conference looms large. The Orlando event must deliver enough substance to address a stock that has shed nearly 44% over the past twelve months. Whether a broader AI access strategy and a refreshed product roadmap can reverse that trajectory is the question hanging over SAP’s management team.