“ERP should just be a ledger.”
“Put AI on top.”
“Decouple everything.”
It sounds radical.
It isn’t.
What’s often described as ERP failure
is simply ERP misused.
ERP never came from accounting.
It came from planning.
From dependencies.
From cause and effect.
Yes — many implementations reduced it to a ledger.
But that says more about organisational choices than about ERP itself.
Here’s the uncomfortable part:
SAP, Oracle, Microsoft — and others —
already moved past the “AI-on-top” phase.
- • embedding intelligence into the core
- • into processes
- • into the user interface
Not watching.
Acting.
The loudest calls to keep ERP “dumb”
often come from those
who can’t monetise an intelligent core.
So the old frame stays useful:
ERP is legacy.
ERP must remain passive.
AI lives elsewhere.
But the future isn’t decoupled intelligence.
It’s decision-making where responsibility already lives.
The real question isn’t:
Is ERP dead?
It’s:
Who benefits from keeping it that way?