There’s a growing narrative that ERP has failed.
That it should be reduced to a ledger.
That intelligence belongs above it, not within it.
On the surface, this feels progressive.
In reality, it’s a familiar pattern.
ERP didn’t originate in finance.
It emerged from MRP — from planning, constraints, and interdependencies.
Accounting followed as a consequence, not as a core purpose.
Many organisations later implemented ERP in a narrow way:
- • transactional
- • report-heavy
- • decision-light
That operational reality is often presented as proof that ERP cannot be more than a system of record.
But that conclusion skips an important step.
It confuses how ERP was used
with what ERP was designed to do.
Meanwhile, something else is happening.
Major ERP vendors are no longer experimenting with AI as an add-on.
They are integrating intelligence:
- • into the core logic
- • into workflows
- • into the user experience
Not as observers, but as participants in decision-making.
This changes the power dynamics.
When intelligence becomes process-native, there is less room for:
- • external orchestration layers
- • abstract “AI above ERP” constructs
- • advisory models built on separation
The insistence on keeping ERP passive is therefore not purely technical.
It’s economic.
It preserves relevance in a world where the core is becoming intelligent again.
The irony is striking.
What’s framed as a radical future often leads back to an old model:
- • ERP as a register
- • intelligence as commentary
- • decisions made elsewhere
While the actual evolution moves closer to ERP’s original intent:
planning, coherence, and accountable decisions
inside the system that runs the business.