“It is clear that no matter where we go, we cannot avoid the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI).” These are the words from a top analyst at Gartner as he emphasized how quickly AI is evolving and how important it is for people to embrace AI before we can no longer keep up with it.
High performing businesses are well on their way to harnessing the power of AI, particularly when it comes to automating and optimizing their processes. According to NVIDIA's State of AI in Retail survey, 52% of retailers report that AI is helping create more operational efficiencies.
One key area where AI is making a difference is in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems used to manage everything from inventory to finances. If you're taking advantage of modern cloud-based solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central you can already access AI capabilities designed to help you work more productively, analyze data, and make better-informed predictions about things like future sales and stock requirements.
This emerging approach to AI-powered ERP is often described as agentic ERP, where AI capabilities and agents are increasingly becoming part of the ERP environment itself. In this article, we explain what agentic ERP is and how it could benefit your retail business. .
What is an agentic ERP system?
Agentic ERP represents the next stage in the evolution of AI-powered ERP. Traditional ERP systems automate predefined processes such as financial reporting, sales forecasting, and inventory management. AI-enhanced ERP can analyze large amounts of data, surface insights, and suggest potential actions. Agentic ERP takes this a step further by introducing AI agents that can reason through tasks and take action within defined business rules and permissions.
For example, an AI agent could identify an inventory issue, determine an appropriate response, and initiate the relevant workflow, with human oversight where needed. Rather than simply providing information, these agents can help move work forward by carrying out routine, multi-step tasks.
Think of it as an intelligent assistant helping you make decisions, manage workflows, and respond to issues more quickly.
How AI powers agentic ERP
AI is helping ERP systems evolve toward an agentic model, where AI agents can use business data and processes to understand context, identify opportunities, and help take action.
Take the holiday season. You know demand will rise, but predicting exactly which products will take off, and where, is another story. A traditional ERP system may rely on predefined rules and manual intervention to respond to those changes. An agentic ERP system takes a different approach: it can continuously monitor sales, inventory, and purchasing data, catching unexpected shifts in demand as they happen.
If a particular gift set suddenly starts selling faster than expected, an AI agent can assess available stock, check inventory across other locations, and work out the best response. Within the rules and permissions you've set, it can automatically trigger a replenishment order or reallocate stock to the stores where demand is highest. If a decision needs your sign-off, it flags the issue instead and recommends the next best action.
AI agents can also take repetitive manual work off your plate, such as processing incoming emails, preparing supplier communications, and managing routine workflows. That gives your team more time to focus on customers and the decisions that actually need a person behind them.
How agentic ERP supports retailers
Retailers stand to gain real benefits as AI agents become more deeply embedded in their ERP systems. Here are some of the key opportunities:
- Proactive problem solving. AI agents monitor your business data and workflows to catch potential issues before they escalate. An agent might detect that a supplier has missed a delivery deadline, check which stores and orders are affected, and identify alternative options. From there, it can notify the relevant teams, reach out to the supplier, or kick off the appropriate workflow, escalating anything that needs your sign-off along the way.
- More efficient operations. AI agents take on the repetitive, multi-step tasks that eat up your team's day: processing information, managing routine workflows, assisting with supplier communications. That means less manual work and more time for your employees to focus on customers and the priorities that actually move the business forward.
- Faster response to market changes. Whether it's a looming supply chain disruption or a sudden shift in customer demand, AI helps you catch emerging trends and respond before they become bigger problems. By analyzing data and assisting with inventory adjustments, purchasing, and forecasting, agentic ERP helps you adapt as conditions change, rather than scrambling to catch up.
The future of agentic ERP
As AI becomes more deeply embedded in ERP systems, the role of ERP is set to change. Instead of simply recording what has happened and automating predefined processes, these systems will increasingly help retailers respond to what is happening right now and determine what needs to happen next.
For your retail business, the opportunity is to move toward operations that are more responsive and increasingly autonomous, with AI agents handling routine decisions and actions while you and your team stay in control of the moments that require human judgment. As these capabilities mature, agentic ERP could help you run your business more proactively, with AI taking on more routine work and freeing your team to focus on customers and strategic priorities.
Want to find out more about how ERP systems are evolving and what that means for your retail business? Contact our experts to find out more.
