An ERP AI Chatbot: The Ultimate Guide

As the business grows, its day-to-day operations become more complicated. And adopting an enterprise resource planning (ERM) system that tracks them across various departments becomes a must. While traditional ERMs streamline business processes on their own, IBM’s study shows that applying AI solutions to SAP software (systems applications and products) makes them even more profitable.

Today, thanks to advanced machine learning models and natural language processing capabilities, ERP systems have become more precise. ERP AI chatbots revolutionize business operations by automating processes, enhancing customer support, and improving decision-making. Read further to find out the benefits, use cases, and implementation strategies for integrating AI chatbots into your enterprise resource planning system.

What is an ERP AI Chatbot?

An enterprise resource planning system is a business management software that allows the company to keep track of all its operations. An ERP is an integrated system that centralizes data across all the departments and updates it in real time. Thanks to ERP systems, businesses streamline their processes and enhance security. 

Unfortunately, integrated ERP solutions have their pitfalls. The enterprise resource planning system may become so complex that it’s hard for employees to use. To navigate through large databases and quickly fulfill requests, an ERP system needs AI-powered chatbots. 

 An ERP AI chatbot is a program powered by artificial intelligence that simplifies interactions with the back end of the enterprise resource planning system. It helps both customers and employees to retrieve necessary data quickly. An AI chatbot understands the requests and provides the answers in a conversational manner. It is an effective tool for ERP automation. For instance, an AI chatbot can find documentation, prepare a report, or provide personal recommendations based on the ERP database. 

The types of AI chatbots for ERP systems

Let’s take a look at different types of AI chatbots that can be integrated with enterprise resource planning systems. They vary according to the tasks the chatbots perform. 

• Customer service bots ensure efficient and around-the-clock customer support. 
• Internal processes automation bots handle the repetitive operations. 
• SQL database bots help to manage a database. They analyze large amounts of datasets and retrieve necessary data. 

8 Benefits of Using AI Chatbots in ERP Systems

It’s true that integrating an AI-driven ERP chatbot into the system has many advantages. Take a closer look at the most prominent ones. 

1. Workflow automation. The AI technology enhances ERP workflow automation. An ERP AI chatbot is perfect for handling repetitive and time-consuming operations. Thanks to the instant query resolution, AI-powered chatbots can automate processes and simplify user interactions with the ERP system. 
2. Streamlined internal processes. An ERP AI chatbot reduces the time spent on employees browsing the system. Applied to the existing workflows, an AI chatbot can perform specific tasks for employees and simplify their routines. For instance, an ERP AI chatbot can make data entry, email management, meeting scheduling, and report preparation fast. 
3. Increased employee productivity. By automating part of their daily tasks, employees can spend more time on other assignments. An ERP AI chatbot frees the departments from repetitive work and lets employees focus on more complicated creative tasks, such as in-person team collaboration. 
4. Enhanced decision-making. Since an ERP AI chatbot delivers search results quickly, employees can use it to make decisions faster. But what’s more important is that powered with predictive analytics, an AI chatbot can make recommendations based on the data. It can share meaningful insights and analytics with the users. Even more, an AI chatbot in enterprise resource planning can optimize the work of the whole system itself. 
5. Increased operational efficiency. An AI chatbot reduces manual workloads, which also reduces the human factor and errors that occur with manual data entry. An ERP AI chatbot is more precise and efficient. Because of that, a chatbot makes a great assistant for the employees. 
6. Enhanced accessibility and customer experience. A conversational AI-powered chatbot ensures a personalized user experience. According to a Harvard Business Review survey,  improvements in customization lead to a revenue increase of 6% to 10% for companies. Thanks to personalization efforts, businesses achieve great customer satisfaction and high retention rates. Moreover, retaining a customer is more cost-effective than acquiring a new one. An integrated AI chatbot makes the ERP system more accessible, eliminating the need for a dedicated 24/7 ERP customer support team. 
7. Increased security. An ERP AI chatbot ensures the confidentiality and integrity of the data it uses. It protects any sensitive information by encrypting such data. Also, in case of any breakdowns and software malfunction, an AI chatbot notifies the users on their preferred devices. This improved functionality allows employees to address the issues quickly.
8. Cost savings. Workflow automation, data-driven decision making, reduction of human errors, increased worker productivity, and high customer retention - are only some of the AI advantages. An effective automation optimizes a company's resources and significantly saves costs for the business.

Successful case studies

In 2018, the famous fashion retailer H&M started using AI as a part of their ERP digital transformation strategy. They applied AI both to optimize the supply chain and to enhance customer experience. The company’s ERP AI chatbot helped employees with manual data entry and inventory management. As a result, H&M improved its operational efficiency and increased sales.

In April 2024, The Coca-Cola Company announced its five-year strategic partnership with Microsoft Corp. The partnership involves a $1.1 billion commitment to the Microsoft Cloud and its generative AI capabilities. Coca-Cola has already implemented an AI-powered ERP chatbot for production scheduling into their SAP. Now, the company has started using generative AI-powered digital assistants on Azure OpenAI Service. Coca-Cola aims to help employees improve customer experiences, streamline operations, foster innovation, gain a competitive advantage, and boost efficiency with the help of Microsoft Corp AI services. 

Use Cases of ERP AI Chatbots in Different Industries

An ERP AI chatbot can perform different tasks depending on the software it is integrated with. Just like the enterprise resource planning system, chatbots are often tailored according to the company’s needs and peculiarities. Here are examples of specific uses of ERP chatbots across different industries. 

Logistics and Manufacturing. The common applications of AI chatbots in logistics and manufacturing are inventory management and supply chain optimization. Chatbots can assist people with real-time order placement, order tracking, and payment processing. Apart from that, ERP AI chatbots can identify the gaps in the supply chain and provide recommendations on how to reduce them. 

Retail. In retail, AI chatbots are often used for order tracking and personalized customer support. AI bots become virtual personal assistants for customers and help them step-by-step with making a purchase or solving some issues. Integrated with ERP, chatbots provide 24/7 customer support without any delays. AI tools are user-friendly and maintain brand identity across various devices. Notably, AI-driven ERP chatbots in retail are scalable, which means they can deal with a large volume of queries simultaneously during peak sales. On top of that, ERP AI chatbots can gather customer data and turn it into valuable business insights about user behavior. The application of ERP AI chatbots in retail leads to high customer satisfaction and retention rates. 

Healthcare. The common applications of AI chatbots in healthcare are patient management, staff management, and appointment scheduling. In essence, an AI chatbot can perform the tasks of the contact center. A conversational AI chatbot helps patients to book, cancel, or reschedule their appointments. Moreover, it helps users to check test results and access their medical records. An ERP AI chatbot often assists patients in step-by-step preparation for certain diagnostic tests in advance. In addition, an AI chatbot may gather users’ feedback, send out reminders to patients about prescription refills, and share disease prevention insights. 

ERP AI chatbots reduce patient wait time and enhance customer experience. But what’s more important is that it automates certain processes so that medical workers can spend their time on more critical issues. In fact, according to McKinsey, 10% of nursing activities could be freed up by AI automation.

Finance and banking. As for the finance industry, ERP AI chatbots assist employees in automated reporting and compliance tracking. Thanks to an AI chatbot integrated into an ERP system, companies can automate compliance. A chatbot can track and report regulatory tasks within the existing ERP workflows and consistently keep the employees informed, as well as communicate any legal changes. Also, an ERP AI chatbot can regularly update training for employees and assist in conducting compliance audits. 

In banking services, ERP AI chatbots often carry out customer support. In particular, they can help customers with financial transactions and transfers between their accounts. AI automation tools are also of help in monitoring any suspicious activities and alerting users about fraud or other security threats.

Implementing ERP AI Chatbots in Your Business

If you are ready to implement an ERP AI chatbot into your existing system, here are the most effective steps you should follow:

1. Set your objectives. First, you have to start ERP chatbot integration by setting your business goals. Plan upfront what you want to achieve with an AI chatbot integrated into your ERP system. Create a list of activities your AI chatbot must be able to complete and the types of queries the bot will work with. 
2. Select an AI chatbot platform. Next, you have to choose a suitable AI platform. Having previously mapped your business needs, selecting a platform should not be hard. You simply pick the one that better integrates well with your current ERP system and suits your business needs better. Some popular chatbot providers that deliver ready-made solutions are Dialogflow by Google and Microsoft Bot Framework. Alternatively, you can choose custom AI chatbot development and build your own unique solution that covers all your business needs.
3. Plan smooth system integration. You can’t risk exposing users’ sensitive information. That is why you have to make sure that you’ve taken all the necessary security measures before an AI chatbot integration with the ERP system. Double-check the security protocols and compliance with data privacy policies. Also, map out the data flows and prepare a crisis management plan to be ready if a security breach occurs. And only after that, can you integrate your chatbot with your existing ERP system. 
4. Design the conversational flow. The next step is developing the AI chatbot’s conversational skills and logic. You have to create a list of potential user inquiries and design the chatbot’s typical responses to each of them. After that, it’s time to integrate Natural Language Processing (NLP) components. An AI chatbot has to learn how to recognize user intent. Next, you have to train your chatbot on the historical data so that it gives adequate responses. 
5. Test and deploy. Having designed the conversational flow and integrated the AI chatbot with the ERP system, you need to test it rigorously. After having conducted the controlled tests, deploy your ERP AI chatbot.  
6. Constantly monitor the chatbot’s performance. Upon deployment, you have to track the ERP AI chatbot’s performance and collect user feedback. This will help you prevent system failures beforehand and enhance user experience. In addition, the collected user feedback will help you find room for improvement. Thanks to it, you can discover ways to optimize the AI chatbot’s performance. Also, do not forget to update the information which the AI chatbot uses regularly.  
7. Educate the employees about the new technology. In the end, conduct employee training on how to use the ERP AI chatbot. Encourage the employees to discover its functionality and use the AI chatbot to complete certain tasks. If your AI chatbot is intended for the customers, make sure it’s easy to use and engage with. 

The Future of ERP AI Chatbots

According to Deloitte’s research, by 2030, the trend of enhancing ERP systems with cutting-edge technologies, such as AI, will remain. In fact, AI in ERP systems, robotic process automation, data integration, and sustainability will become necessary for business players because intelligent ERP systems are going to be a significant competitive advantage. 

Naturally, the interest in AI technologies will only grow. Artificial intelligence will continue to drive the ERP digital transformation for companies. Deloitte research shows that ERP AI will both automate some processes and participate in decision-making in the future. 

By 2030, AI-powered chatbots will become a common user option for interacting with an ERP system. And no doubt, they will be more profound in the future. With time, AI technologies improve their conversational qualities. As the research in deep learning advances, so do the natural language processing (NLP) models. So will the abilities of AI chatbots. 

Chances are, the way people interact with ERP AI chatbots will also change. One of the latest trends in AI chatbot development is the development of voice-activated commands. In the future, users will be able to speak to an AI chatbot and command it to take some actions within the ERP system. 

Another prominent AI research domain is emotional intelligence. It’s plausible that chatbots will become more human-like, with the ability to recognize emotions. Emotional intelligence will make them perfect employees and customer assistants.  

Predictive analytics is currently on the rise too. The technology helps AI chatbots analyze data, spot the patterns in it, and make recommendations based on the analyses. Thanks to predictive analytics, ERP AI chatbots will become valuable decision-makers in the future. 

Conclusion

The Enterprise Resource Planning Software market continues to grow. It’s expected to increase by 4.26% in 2024-2029 and reach US$65.49bn by 2029. Artificial intelligence remains one of the main drivers of ERP digital transformation. It makes complex ERPs easier to use and turns intelligent ERP systems into a competitive business advantage. 

AI-powered chatbots are a simple yet powerful tool for ERP systems. ERP chatbot integration has many advantages. ERP AI chatbots revolutionize business operations by automating processes, enhancing customer support, and improving decision-making. AI-powered chatbots streamline workflow operations and increase operational efficiency. They enhance user experience and overall system security. On top of that, AI in ERP systems has proven to be cost-effective. 

The ERP chatbot integration, however, has to be done wisely. According to Gartner, 75% of ERP strategies do not correspond to the overall business strategy and fail because of that. That is why companies should carefully approach AI-powered chatbot development for their ERP systems. 

Early on, businesses have to understand their goals and what they want to achieve with an AI chatbot in enterprise resource planning. Next, they have to choose a suitable development approach, plan the system integration, and design a conversational flow. The finishing touch for the business is to properly test its AI chatbot and constantly monitor its performance. It is also essential to instruct the employees on how to use an ERP AI chatbot to make the most out of its abilities. 

ElifTech experts are ready to help you with precise ERP chatbot development and integration. Contact us to explore ERP AI chatbot solutions tailored to your industry and start the journey toward digital transformation.