How will Artificial Intelligence Impact ERP Software?

When we first looked at how AI technology was impacting ERPs in 2019, much of the discussion focused on what the technology might eventually do. Since then, a lot has changed, and artificial intelligence has become part of everyday work in many ERP systems. Manufacturers can use it to process incoming documents, find information, ask questions about their business, and reduce repetitive data entry. 

These capabilities build on the information manufacturers already collect through their ERP systems. AI can help identify patterns in that data, make it easier to access, and use it to support decisions across the business. For manufacturers, this creates opportunities to improve everyday tasks, from entering a customer order to planning material purchases.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Let’s begin by understanding artificial intelligence (AI). AI, simply put, refers to technology that simulates human intelligence and decision-making processes. This enables software to perform tasks such as recognizing patterns, interpreting language, and generating responses. 

In an ERP, AI can help you find information, analyze data, and automate everyday tasks. IBM’s overview of AI in ERP explains some of the technologies behind these tools. Three terms worth knowing are:

• Machine learning identifies patterns in data that can support predictions, such as whether an invoice is likely to be paid late.
• Natural language processing helps software interpret written questions, requests, and documents.
• Generative AI produces content, such as an explanation, a summary, or a draft email, based on the information available to it.

An AI feature in an ERP system may combine several of these technologies. It may also work alongside familiar ERP rules and calculations. For example, AI can extract details from a customer email, while the ERP applies the established pricing and approval rules.

The Benefits of AI in ERP Systems

AI is used across ERP functions, from accounting and purchasing to sales and customer support. Practical AI tools help users find information, process documents, create quotes and automate everyday tasks. For example, Genius Cortex brings these capabilities directly into Genius ERP, helping manufacturers reduce manual work and interact with their ERP data more easily.

ERP systems that integrate AI can analyze patterns and trends in large volumes of data, improving decision-making processes and giving manufacturers better insights into their operations.

AI in ERP offers several advantages, such as:

• Reducing manual data entry and document handling
• Making ERP information easier to find and understand
• Supporting purchasing decisions and demand planning
• Identifying patterns and potential problems in business data
• Helping employees find answers and follow documented processes
• Giving teams more time to manage exceptions and support customers

How AI Is Used in ERP Software

AI can improve several aspects of working with an ERP system, from analyzing business data to processing documents and finding information. Let’s look more closely at how AI can help manufacturers in each of these areas.

Data Handling and Business Intelligence

Learning how to use and leverage your data to make better business decisions is one of the biggest advantages an ERP can give you. 

Manufacturing is one of the most data-intensive industries out there, and an ERP connected to your entire operation brings much of that information together. AI can then identify patterns that help users anticipate what may happen next.

That data can help people across your organization, not just at the C-suite level, address common manufacturing challenges. Access to real-time data and customizable reports empowers decision-makers throughout your business to make faster and better decisions. 

Through machine learning, AI can help your ERP identify useful patterns in sales, purchasing, and production data. For example, it can analyze customers’ ordering patterns to help you plan inventory around their needs, or highlight recurring supplier delays that could affect your production schedule. This can give your team a better understanding of what to expect when making purchasing and planning decisions.

In addition, artificial intelligence can also be used to read historical data and learn from earlier behavioral patterns. This could be extremely helpful to custom manufacturers in terms of creating quotes and estimates. Building new products poses a significant challenge in creating quotes, but by deeply analyzing similar products you have built in the past, AI can give you greater insights into actual costs. This makes it easier to create an accurate quote for your customer (as well as help you to make overall better business decisions by having a better handle on job costs).

Process Automation

Automating business processes helps you to save both time and money. 

When routine processes, like invoicing and month-end closing, can take hours or even days to complete, you are wasting a lot of staff time and dollars. ERPs already help manufacturers improve productivity in this area, especially for manufacturers still relying on Excel. 

An ERP system can assist in scheduling, accounting, inventory management, and engineering and can automate production processes, leaving your workers with time to focus on other tasks, such as innovation and business growth. Automating your business processes with an ERP lets you do more with less, allowing you to take on more business with your current resources.

AI can extend ERP automation by interpreting information that would otherwise need to be entered manually. For example, in Genius ERP, Smart Paste uses AI to turn text copied from an email or spreadsheet into structured data, such as the requested items in a quote. Genius IDP supports document capture, data extraction, filing, and routing, connecting documents to the relevant ERP records. These tools reduce repetitive handling while keeping review and approval steps within the process.

Similar applications are available in other ERP systems. Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, for example, uses intelligent document recognition to process supplier invoices and predictive account coding to reduce manual entry.

User Experience

We’re not going to lie — learning to navigate a complex system like an ERP can be a major hurdle to some manufacturing businesses. ERPs, especially when you are learning a new system from scratch, are not always the most intuitive and simple software systems to use. Finding the right screen, understanding a feature, or locating a procedure can take time.

This is an area where AI built into an ERP can help. In Genius ERP, our chatbot answers questions using information about the software, your company-specific documentation, and the business data in your system. Users can ask questions in everyday language to learn how a feature works, find instructions for an internal process, or get information about their business.

Giving employees access to the same documented procedures can also help them work more consistently. They can find guidance within the system instead of searching through separate documents or asking a colleague where to look.

Genius ERP’s Smart Filters feature applies a similar approach to searching records. Users describe what they need, such as open quotes for a particular customer, and AI builds the filter criteria. They can apply the filter immediately and save it for future use, making common searches easier to repeat without rebuilding them.

Conversational and Generative AI

Conversational AI lets users interact with an ERP through questions and requests in everyday language. Generative AI can produce explanations, summaries, and draft responses using the information available to it. Together, these capabilities give users more ways to understand and work with information inside the system.

The information behind the response matters. Genius Chatbot can answer questions not only using information about Genius ERP and your company procedures, but also your business data. This means you can ask questions about your operations and business data and get answers right away, without waiting to find and run a report. 

Other ERP providers are applying these capabilities to specific tasks. SAP, for example, offers AI-assisted error explanations in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, helping users understand system errors and suggesting ways to resolve them.

As these capabilities develop, users may be able to complete more of their work through a conversation with their ERP. The value will come from connecting those requests to the right information and actions within the system.

What AI Agents Can Do in an ERP

An AI agent can use connected tools to carry out steps in a process. In an ERP, those steps might include checking business records or preparing a transaction. What it can do depends on the instructions, permissions, and review requirements set for it.

Order entry is a useful example. An agent may read a request, identify the customer and items, check information against ERP records, and prepare the next transaction. Missing information or a price discrepancy can trigger a review before processing continues.

Microsoft’s Sales Order Agent in Business Central illustrates this approach. It analyzes emailed requests, checks item availability, and prepares sales quotes that can be converted into orders. Microsoft specifies that designated users review and approve outgoing messages before they are sent to customers.

Genius ERP’s Cortex Intake applies AI to incoming customer purchase orders and order changes. It reads emails and attachments, checks the details against ERP records and business rules, and flags items that need attention. Approved information then flows into Genius ERP.

For manufacturers, that means less time spent reading requests and entering order details by hand. Agents can handle routine steps, check information against the ERP, and flag anything that needs a person’s attention.