There's a claim you've probably heard that AI is already built into your ERP. And technically, that's not a lie. But it's not the whole truth either.
What most ERP platforms call "AI" today is largely surface-level: chatbots that answer FAQ-style questions, invoice scanning with OCR, and basic anomaly detection. These are useful capabilities, but there’s more to AI. There’s a difference between what vendors are calling AI and what AI can actually do for business.
At Trenegy, we’re working with many organizations navigating the intersection of ERP and AI. What follows is our honest take on where things stand, where they're headed, and what it means for companies.
Implementing an ERP system is a big undertaking. An ERP requires significant resources to implement, and support, and maintain. AI has the potential to address these pain points, but the problem is that the AI most ERP vendors are delivering only scratches the surface of what’s possible.
Our team conducted a study of 20 different high-value ERP use cases that AI could help with. These include tasks like automating data conversion cleanup, building test scenarios from legacy data, personnel scheduling, NLP procurement, predictive month-end task management, and more. All things AI can currently do or will be able to do soon.
Currently, for 5 major ERP platforms:
Put simply: a large percentage of what genuine AI could do for ERP doesn't exist in any production system today.
To cut through vendor noise, it helps to think about AI capability in terms of maturity levels.
Most of what vendors are marketing as AI lives at Levels 1 and 2. Capabilities that would significantly change how a business operates (the ones that justify major investment and strategy changes) require Levels 3 through 5. The industry is still building toward those.
That doesn't mean the opportunity isn't real. It means the timeline and expectations must be calibrated correctly.
Beyond maturity level, there's another critical distinction to address: the difference between bolt-on AI and integrated AI.
Bolt-on AI is what most vendors are selling today. It's separate tools and add-ons layered on top of existing systems. It's limited to specific isolated tasks. It requires manual data transfer. It's disconnected from core workflows.
Integrated AI is fundamentally different. It's woven deep into the system architecture. It powers multiple business processes simultaneously. Data flows seamlessly throughout. It becomes a natural part of how work gets done, not a forgotten feature.
Bolt-on AI lets vendors check a box. Integrated AI drives real transformation. The question to ask ERP vendors isn't "do you have AI?" It's "how deeply is AI woven into your architecture, and what processes does it currently run end-to-end?"
Once AI matures to Levels 4 and 5, we see the biggest impacts happening in four key areas:
ERP Implementation: AI could cut implementation timelines in half by automating configuration, data cleanup, test scenarios, and custom code generation. It would eliminate the manual, repetitive work that makes implementations so painful and expensive.
Daily Back-Office: Imagine never navigating a menu again. Natural language navigation, intelligent GL coding, and automated AP rule creation from contract PDFs eliminate "death by clicks" and free teams to focus on strategy.
Front Office & Operations: From autonomous production scheduling to natural language procurement requests, AI can handle the coordination and transaction work that currently requires constant human intervention faster and with fewer errors.
Month-End Accounting: The close process doesn't have to be stressful. AI can automate reconciliations, flag journal entry anomalies in real time, and predict cost adjustments, moving finance teams from executing the close to simply reviewing it.
The AI technology exists. The use cases are clear. Why is the gap so wide?
None of these are permanent barriers. But they are real, and they explain why the transformation can seem slow.
ERP has always been one of the most consequential technology investments an organization makes. AI is set to reshape all of that by making it more capable and less dependent on human effort for routine execution.
The good news is that organizations don't need to have everything figured out to get started. They just need to be moving in the right direction. Clean data, thoughtful ERP selection, and a clear understanding of where AI is today versus where it's headed are the building blocks. The goal is to make sure your organization is ready when the right capabilities do arrive.
At Trenegy, that's what we mean when we say our role is to partner with clients to prepare them for the future. It’s the strategy, processes, and people that make technology changes stick. To chat more about this, email us at info@trenegy.com.
Trenegy is a non-traditional consulting firm based in Houston, Texas.
