SAP Wants AI Agents to Fix Your Custom Code. We Find Out How on 27 October.

Posted on Oct 18 • Originally published at ayraix.com

SAP TechEd Berlin starts 27 October with sessions on agent-led custom code migration. What SAP announced, the clean core levels, and what to ask in the room.

Every ECC migration has the same villain. Not the budget. Not the database. The custom code.

Thousands of Z programs, user exits, forms and reports. Written over twenty years. Understood by three people, two of whom have left.

SAP now says AI agents can take that on. The proof is due at SAP TechEd Berlin, 27 to 29 October. The virtual edition is free.

This is a preview. I have not seen the sessions. What I can do is show you what SAP has put on the agenda, explain the framework behind it, and give you the questions that separate a good demo from a good result.

The short version: SAP says an agent-led toolchain will take custom code from planning to "mass remediation". Whether that works depends on one number: how many of the agent's fixes survive review and testing untouched.

From SAP's own TechEd 2026 ABAP session overview:

Where an agent fits, and where you still sign. Diagram by ayraix.com.

To judge any agent, you need to know what "fixed" means. SAP defines it with clean core levels, introduced in August 2025 to replace the old three-tier model.

Here is something I find telling. SAP's own community guidance says the old binary view, "clean core" versus "not clean", was "too restrictive" for systems with a lot of classic custom code. In other words, SAP changed the model because real landscapes could not meet the old one.

For governance, SAP recommends the ABAP Test Cockpit, and says central ATC on SAP BTP is its recommended approach for governing clean core development in private cloud and on-premises landscapes.

Where your Z code lands. SAP's four levels. Diagram by ayraix.com.

Custom code is one of the main reasons customers give for being late. A partner CEO told CIO.com that many customers are "stuck on ECC due to Z codes and industry customizations". DSAG's chairman points to complex landscapes and skills shortages.

And remember the calendar. SAP says mainstream maintenance for ECC ends in 2027 and extended maintenance in 2030. If agents can safely cut the custom code effort, the migration math changes. That "if" is the whole story.

My read, not SAP's: some custom code work is a good fit for machines.

An agent that clears a technical check can still break a business outcome. That is why the review and test step matters as much as the remediation step.

All times below are CET, as listed by SAP. Several sessions overlap, and some have virtual replays or a second slot, so check the schedule before you travel.

Do not judge this by the demo. Demos use tidy code.

Judge it by a number from a messy system: fixes accepted without edits, tests passed, hours saved, incidents caused. If SAP shows those, it is genuinely big news for every ECC shop in the world.

We will be watching. After Berlin, we will come back and report what was actually shown, not what was promised.

Originally published on ayraix.com, practical AI for enterprise builders.