How to choose AI tools that integrate with your ERP

A tool that works in a demo and a tool that works against your ERP are different products. Whether you run NetSuite, Epicor, SAP Business One, JobBOSS, Global Shop Solutions or something older, the integration is where most of the cost and risk sits.

Why integration is the hard part

Gartner's 2025 analysis of agentic AI notes that integrating agents into legacy systems can be technically complex, often disrupting workflows and requiring costly modifications. Gartner also warns about "agent washing": vendors relabeling assistants, robotic process automation and chatbots as agents. It estimates that only about 130 of the thousands of vendors claiming agentic AI are real. Both points argue for testing a tool against your own systems before you commit.

Four ways a tool can connect, best first

• A vendor-supported API: the most stable option, and it survives most upgrades.
• A read-only database or reporting connection: good for lookups and analysis, with low risk.
• A scheduled export or import (CSV, EDI): simple and dependable, but not real time.
• Screen-driven automation of the ERP's user interface: a last resort, because it breaks when screens change.

Eight questions to ask every vendor

• What exactly does it read from the ERP, and what exactly can it write?
• Is the first deployment read-only, with writes going through a human approval queue?
• Does it keep an audit log of what it read, what it proposed and who approved it?
• What account does it use, and can that account be limited to the minimum permissions?
• What happens when it is wrong or when the ERP is unavailable?
• Is your data used to train models for other customers, and where is it stored?
• Who supports the integration when the ERP is upgraded?
• How do you leave: can you export your configuration and data?

Run the test on your data

Ask the vendor to run a pilot against a sanitized copy of your own records, not their sample data. Give them ten real cases, including two awkward ones, and score the output with the person who does the job today. If a vendor will not do that, you have learned something important.

Sources

• Gartner, "Gartner Predicts Over 40% of Agentic AI Projects Will Be Canceled by End of 2027" (June 25, 2025)