We dream of HER, we fear HAL… but we’ll get SAP
Like Sam Altman, we dream of HER. You know, Scarlett Johansson’s voice, the gentle omnipresence of an AI that anticipates our needs, laughs at our jokes, and understands our deepest aspirations. A technology that feels like companionship. And like Stanley Kubrick, we fear HAL. The archetype of the cold, calculating AI that ultimately decides that we are the problem. We fear the chilling moment when the machine speaks softly but takes control.
But in reality, we probably won’t get either.
We’ll get SAP.
Just like when in the 90s, the digital prophets told us computing would make companies run cost-free. ERP systems would accelerate every process, eliminate inefficiencies, and make “real-time business” the default. Remember the promise?
And then reality happened.
We didn’t get super effective, cost-free operations. We got a new backbone. One that was rigid, expensive, and required a priesthood of certified consultants to maintain. SAP became the invisible empire behind the corporate world, dictating workflows, process maps, and even the very language of business.
It wasn’t a computing revolution as much as it was a new tax. Instead of empowering teams, it often boxed them in, creating an entirely new cost structure for any successful business.
Fast forward to today.
AI is being sold with the same fevered promises: seamless insight, effortless automation, creativity on tap. The demos are dazzling. The projections are intoxicating. But you know what reality will be: “Sure, we can make this work for you… It’ll just take 18 months, a custom integration, and an annual subscription that makes your CFO twitch.”
But let’s be honest: most businesses will wake up with whoever manages to become the new SAP. The risk isn’t malevolent robots; it’s another layer of enterprise software that claims to transform your business but mainly transforms your budget.
The real innovation challenge is not whether AI can do amazing things. It’s whether we can prevent it from becoming just another high-cost corporate dependency. The next great “backbone” that stiffens your organisation instead of making it dance.
