🔮 Anyone still calling ERP “legacy” today must have been living under a rock
For weeks, I asked myself one question: what is the future of ERP?
Triggered by the persistent narrative that
“legacy ERP is dead”.
It isn’t.
ERP has evolved.
Yet the market often fails to see what’s already shifting beneath the surface.
That’s where change begins.
A vibration.
A shift.
A being awakening.
Legacy ERP didn’t die during the dot‑com hype.
It evolved.
It strengthened.
Built on cloud-native foundations more resilient than ever.
We keep layering AI on top, while the real shift happens when intelligence becomes part of the system itself.
🐍 The future of ERP is not a layer. It is power.
Not intelligence.
Not assistance.
But the ability to act.
Power arises when humans and technology merge into a single organism.
Not a system that waits.
Not a system that demands.
A system that moves with intention.
To the point where it's no longer clear who's moving.
You or the system.
You with the system.
You through the system, and the system through you.
Two beings.
One direction.
One movement.
One power.
🔥 Intelligence thinks. Power acts.
Intelligence helps you understand.
Power helps you execute.
Intelligence is a tool.
Power is a being.
Next-gen ERP is:
- • a platform that doesn’t wait
- • a system that needs no commands
- • a core that doesn’t break, but breathes
- • a foundation that grows stronger through use
That is symbiotic power.
🧬 What AI in ERP is — and what it is not
Not on top.
Not beside it.
Not as a layer.
Not as a companion.
But:
- • deep in the core
- • woven into the logic
- • anticipating risk
- • acting without workflows
- • correcting before you even see it
A customer orders something
that can’t be delivered
due to quality issues at a supplier?
The organism:
- • detects it
- • understands it
- • finds alternatives
- • calculates impact
- • proposes
- • acts
Without scripts.
Without predefined processes.
Without a consultant ever clicking a button.
That is not intelligence.
That is power.
🎯 Why this friction matters (and why it’s intentional)
- • Others talk about AI as a layer
- I talk about AI as an undercurrent
- • Others see ERP as rigid
- I see ERP as a living organism
- • Others talk about edge automation
- I talk about fusion
- • Others talk about AI coordinating
- I say AI initiates
Symbiotic power is not a roadmap choice.
It is an evolution.
Anything less belongs to an era that has passed.
AI layers are the wrong paradigm.
😅 Just to reassure you:
I’m not a symbiote.
Just a Belgian living in Twente,
looking at ERP for 35 years
and wondering:
“Why are we acting like it’s 1998?”
Complexity is my habitat.
AI layers are my allergy.
Business is what drives me.
I build systems that merge into power.