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Tuesday May 21, 2024

Integrating ERP and ChatGPT

By Dr Imran Batada
May 02, 2023

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has played a huge role in automating business processes in organizations. Different companies benefit from getting insights, internal control, and valuable inputs from different departments. It also helps plan, budget, predict and report on the financial results of a company.

This is why different organizations must have ERP systems for smooth running. However, with the introduction of ChatGPT, is its future guaranteed? The ERP system has made work easier for different departments in organizations by reducing data duplication – but ChatGPT automates functions for humans. How well will ERP survive in the market? It has seemed indispensable after most workplaces adapted it.

ChatGPT is an AI technology that holds human-like conversations in the form of prompts. The language model answers questions provided and helps with tasks such as creating code, writing essays and emails, doing calculations, and other functions. It is believed that ChatGPT will change how humans interact with chatbots and AI. It is easy to use and when it was launched on November 22, many people looked into using it. Furthermore, it is an automated chat service that helps people get their responses in real time. Additionally, it can challenge incorrect assumptions, ask follow-up questions, and admit mistakes. Isn’t it the perfect AI system?

It is believed that ChatGPT will slowly disrupt the Enterprise Resource Software within no time. Its intuitive user experience, process handling, inquiry answering, and other automated customer service tasks makes it a favourite among many. ChatGPT is automatic, unlike the normal enterprise resource planning systems that require manual input from users which leads to some unexpected errors. Therefore, ChatGPT will lead to more accuracy and a reduction of human errors – even though some inputs must be manually made.

Additionally, ChatGPT can be used to enhance functionalities and automate tasks such as data analysis, reporting, financial analysis, and other tasks. Therefore, it will make it easier for businesses to make decisions faster. However, the use of ChatGPT may lead to the loss of certain jobs since all the functions will be automated. But even though AI is making it easier for certain tasks to be done, the ERP system is crucial as it helps with financial management. That said, ChatGPT can also help businesses with financial management through financial analysis to see the loopholes and improvements that need to be made. This will reduce the money that would be used for the analysis of finances.

ChatGPT is also seeming crucial in the supply chain market. It can help improve informational reliability, resolve customer doubts, and integrate with the ERP systems. Therefore, reliable information will be provided to the different managers. Also, ChatGPT can analyze data fast. Regular use of ChatGPT can help it learn from experiences and improve its analysis and insights. Therefore, managers can make informed decisions on different tasks. This makes it a great integration into the ERP system.

However, even though the ChatGPT and ERP integration may seem great, it will still need to be trained on relevant data sources and real-time information so that it gives the right input. At the end of the day, it will provide predictive analytics, real-time monitoring, risk management, and contingency planning. ChatGPT can be integrated with the ERP systems to provide users with easy search functionality to find the information they need easily in the ERP system.

Additionally, ChatGPT can be used to automate data entry tasks by interpreting user requests. In the end, it will lead to improvement in efficiency. ChatGPT can also be used to build effective chatbots that can interact with the user and provide relevant information while using the ERP system. This can reduce the workload on the customer service team as data will be easily retrievable. The ChatGPT and ERP system integration can also help provide predictive analysis and insights. Through the new trends, companies can know what to do and decisions that should be made for more prosperity.

The integration can also help in the automation of repetitive tasks and reduce the workload on employees. Since ChatGPT is user-friendly, many people will be more adaptive to it. Extracting information from the ERP system will be much easier and people won’t have to browse through various reports to get some needed data. By just asking ChatGPT for some data, a user can get it in real-time. How much easier can it get?

Additionally, ChatGPT can help bridge the gap between those who know how to operate the ERP system in the organization and those that don't. By just inquiring, people can get the answer they need in real-time. Therefore, information retrieval won’t be an issue that needs to be sorted out.

ChatGPT’s integration with the ERP system will help users operate systems easily without the need for complex commands. Through the analysis of data, ChatGPT will be able to provide relevant insights on trends and patterns. They will then inform businesses of potential issues and gaps they can fill. As much as ChatGPT integration with ERP will be great, it can lead to issues about data privacy. Therefore, measures must be taken to ensure all the data will be safe.

ERP and ChatGPT integration can be done using plugins and add-ons such as chatbot builders (Botpress, Dialogflow), AI virtual assistants (Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant), and speech recognition software (Nuance Dragon). Additionally, businesses can opt to develop custom integrations using APIs from relevant ERP vendors such as SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft.

There are certain practical examples that can showcase the success of the integration. For example, the SAP conversation AI is a chatbot builder that can be used to build chatbots powered by ChatGPT. This can offer great help in the customer service sector. Customers can make inquiries that the chatbot with fed answers can easily answer without delay, the way ChatGPT answers the different prompts. It can also be used for relevant data retrieval in case someone makes an inquiry about something in the database without necessarily having to extract it manually.

Second, Oracle’s digital assistant can be integrated with Oracle ERP systems which will allow employees in different organizations to communicate easily using voice commands, messaging, or chats. With fed data, it can work as the likes of Alexa where through voice commands one can get answers or feed the system data in real-time. ChatGPT was fed with a lot of crucial information that keeps being updated regularly. This can be a strong functionality for the ERP + ChatGPT integration.

Third, Microsoft Power Virtual Agents is a chatbot builder like the SAP conversational AI that can be integrated with the Microsoft Dynamics ERP system which can greatly benefit online stores through order tracking, invoice generation, and much more. Microsoft has many powerful tools that can be crucial in integration.

ERP and ChatGPT integration can play a huge role in ensuring that business processes are managed easily. Functions like data retrieval which would have taken a long time will now be done more easily and employees can focus on other tasks rather than just inputting certain data and retrieval. The interaction will make ChatGPT the perfect solution for getting answers in real-time without needing to include many personnel or going through different reports. The automation of the bot has become a life changer and with the right integration will boost the technological world by a huge percentage. Therefore, ChatGPT will be a business changer.

The writer is the author of ‘Digital Pakistan’. He tweets @imranbatada and can be reached at imran.batada@gmail.com Web: https://imranbatada.com