The Acumatica ERP Podcast Recap: Acumatica Partners Weigh In on AI ERP’s Impact on Customers

In our season opening episode (Season 2, Episode 1) of The Acumatica ERP Podcast, the discussion focused on how many Acumatica customers are wanting AI to do more than answer questions. They want the ever-evolving technology to do the work.

While some small and midsized businesses (SMBs) are broadly experimenting, others are diving into how it can impact one or two key workflows as well as augment their daily activities, he says. But, regardless of how they utilize AI, they want control of how the data is used, making trust a huge factor in AI usage.

Trust in AI is critical, and it’s just one of the many topics discussed during Season 2, Episode 2 of The Acumatica ERP Podcast. Moderated by Stephanie McColly, CMO and EOS Integrator at Crestwood Associates, a panel of Acumatica Value Added Resellers has a lot to share on what they are hearing, seeing and experiencing with AI and ERP in their own businesses and in the operations of our shared customers.  Acumatica partner Andrea Hayes, Principal for SVA Consulting, LLC and one of the podcast participants, had this to say about trust and AI: “We’re in an age where things like intelligence and data are ubiquitous. They’re everywhere. What becomes scarce is trust.”

She, along with Rob Kirkey, CRO at 3Value, and Armando Huerta, CEO of i-Tech Support, spoke with Stephanie about AI’s impact on their own businesses as well as those of their customers. The engaging conversation was focused around three main areas:

• How AI is showing up in business today.
• Where it’s creating genuine value.
• What organizations should weigh as they figure out their own path forward.

Here’s a recap of the deep insights shared by these outstanding Acumatica partners whose experience helping businesses adopt ERP spans a variety of industries, including defense, regulated life science, non-profits, manufacturing, distribution, and construction.

How AI Is Showing Up In Business Today

Businesses today are waking up to the fact that AI is no longer a can they can kick down the road. It’s technology that’s being woven into every aspect of our personal and professional lives.

“In January, most of our clients couldn’t spell AI,” says Rob. “Now, almost all of our clients are aware that they need to know how can AI assist them, how can AI be safely deployed in their organization, and how to protect themselves from malicious AI-based attacks on their mission-critical information and systems.”

For Stephanie, the biggest takeaway she sees for customers in AI is the need for efficiency. “So, starting to eliminate or at least reduce the need for a lot of repetitive tasks.”

She adds that how information is consumed is changing as businesses are moving to advanced solutions, like Acumatica. “It’s a lot easier to get access to the data that you need to make decisions at the speed of business. I think AI is taking that to the next level because now I can interact with data, I can ask questions of it, and I can glean a lot of insights faster than I could have before.”

Armando, who says i-Tech Support recently launched an “AI-as-a-service offering,” sees being an intelligence partner to his clients while ensuring they understand the role that people play with this technology is important for today’s businesses. “That’s the biggest impact that artificial intelligence makes is that intelligence really comes from the human side, and the artificial side and the infrastructure layer alongside it.”

He also says that helping clients navigate the intricacies of AI by delivering value through clarity is what will make the biggest impact. “To me, leading with value and deploying AI in a governed way is really the way that we’re trying to approach it.”

Where AI Is Creating Genuine Value

The governance piece Armando spoke to, which includes safety and security, is one of the major concerns for businesses today. Stephanie notes that Crestwood has joined the Shield Technology Partners portfolio and is working with its team of engineers to figure out how business gets done using the ERP as a system of record for AI tools. This AI ERP connection is a value-driving proposition—one that customers are trying to both understand and to benefit from.

“Folks are expecting AI to provide some sort of easy button into whatever it is that they see and then identify, but that also becomes a lot of noise,” says Armando.

He points out that his customers—and his business too—want to automate, reduce manual work, and elevate people into doing more value-added services but all of that must be done with a controlled manner that also names the value of implementing AI. This means, among other things, leveraging a data system like Acumatica and turning it from a system of record to a system of intelligence with the help of an expert partner who understands that ERP is the foundation.

“It’s a change management project and an opportunity to set the foundation so that whatever it is that they’re working on, it’s going to be long-lasting and repeatable,” Armando says.

For Rob, who works with clients with strict regulations (e.g., defense contractors who handle unclassified information), understanding regulations in terms of adopting AI is critical to extracting value.

“They need to meet the same 110 security controls from the National Institute of Standards and Technology that apply to the organization’s deployment of Acumatica Cloud ERP,” he says.

What happens if businesses don’t remain compliant in their use of AI models? It’s not good. “If an AI agent is the one who created a transaction incorrectly, you’re not going to get a get out of jail free card by telling the auditor, ‘Hey, it’s the AI’s fault.’ As a result of an AI agent’s misallocating labor incorrectly, a contractor could lose their contract, they could incur fines, there could even be jail time involved.”

It’s serious business, but AI automation is also exciting. To reap the benefits, Andrea says they first ensure their clients have a modern system of record, such as Acumatica, and then do an AI assessment that surfaces friction points and explores what areas can be improved so they can drive growth and revenue. Once they have that critical information, they look at how to deploy AI so that its value is meaningful and measurable.

“Start with a question, not an experiment,” she says. “Start with something simple, and then something that’s measurable. How do I know it worked? How do I know it didn’t work? I think it’s the small projects that help us move and see value quickly.”

Specific examples of gleaning value from AI ERP by the Acumatica partners?

• Armando’s team helped a client by developing an AI-based workflow automation platform that created a more deterministic vs event-based workflow, saving the client about $5,000 a week in time savings. “It’s not about what can’t AI do, it’s what it should do.”
• Rob’s team built a smart estimator that works with Acumatica. Now, instead of taking hours or days to convert a manufacturing drawing into a bill of materials and estimate within Acumatica, he says, “The product that we developed using AI now turns the multi-hour, multi-day process into a couple minutes.”
• Stephanie’s team launched a sales order agent that is an Acumatica add-on that reduced the creation of orders from 10 minutes down to seconds.

What Organizations Should Weigh As They Move Forward

As we continue to use AI tools to increase efficiency and reduce costs, Andrea cautions users to stay vigilant and to not forget the importance of human oversight.

“I constantly argue and question with [AI tools],” she says. “I say, ‘Is that accurate?’ or ‘Cite your source.’ I think we’re missing the value that the human has in the equation. I think that has to be kind of front and center, especially as we move forward in the age of AI.”

Armando agrees. “Access to data and processes is almost ubiquitous, but at the same time, you need a human in the loop to be able to have right, sound judgement. Our clients…are [asking], ‘Can somebody come in here and tell me how can I gain a competitive advantage?’, and you just can’t do that with data. It’s going to be a function of it, but it’s how you interpret the data and make the decisions with judgement and with care.”

As businesses move forward with AI ERP, Armando is excited that ERP is becoming more conversational so users can query the system to find data but that same advantage will require expert assistance from channel partners. But he warns that businesses need to know why they implement AI.

“It can become an added risk rather than an asset.”

Rob and his team have figured out how to utilize AI as an asset by showing organizations how Acumatica would work for their organization from the get-go.

“When we move from the purchase to the kickoff, we have our consultants using AI to search through all the meeting transcripts that were done in that client’s evaluation, so that we’re capturing all the requirements that were discussed, the KPIs, the aspirations, so that we ensure none of that falls through the cracks as we move from client’s evaluation of Acumatica Cloud ERP to the implementation of it.

“And then using AI tools to migrate historical data from legacy ERPs into Acumatica—it’s been a game changer.”

Game-Changing AI ERP

I’ve barely scratched the surface of what Rob, Andrea, and Armando had to say about the game-changing benefits of AI ERP. I encourage you to listen to the full episode to learn more, including why:

• Andrea recommends customers play the long game when it comes to AI, taking your people and culture into account.
• Armando champions the importance of change management and the human element as well as the importance of starting with one smaller AI project to boost forward momentum.
• Rob advises reviewing existing business processes to determine how to use AI and taking advantage of the free training to become AI literate.

It was a great conversation, with insightful contributions, like this comment by Armando, “[The businesses] that treat AI as an operational change with a technology component and not a technology purchase with an operating side effect are going to be the ones that win.”

There are plenty more nuggets of wisdom like this throughout the conversation, and if you enjoy listening, please subscribe to the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen so you can catch every new episode.