Epicor debuted a new set of agentic AI capabilities for its ERP systems Tuesday that are designed to make supply chain processes easier to use and more productive.
The capabilities, which use a natural language interface, cover more than 10 critical supply chain processes, including finance, production, customer service and operations, and are focused on manufacturing, distribution and retail industry segments. They are embedded into Epicor Prism, a set of generative AI services that can be used to build, extend and deploy AI functions available within the Epicor Industry ERP Cloud suite of applications.
"We're focused on the use cases where the activities in the ERP that may take days or weeks to do can be compressed into minutes," said Vaibhav Vohra, president of Epicor, in a briefing prior to Epicor Insights. "There are supply chain use cases for finance, operations, commerce, learning and workflows, and we're trying to take the friction out of those use cases."
The Prism AI agents are available now at no cost to a level of usage, after which they are subject to consumption-based pricing, he said.
"We want all customers to play with the AI to a point where they see the value," Vohra said.
Making supply chain processes more efficient
Madsen's Millwork & Custom Cabinets, a millworks firm based in Edmonton, Alberta, is anticipating tangible efficiency benefits from the agentic AI capabilities in Epicor Prism.
Madsen's makes a variety of wood products primarily for businesses, including custom reception desks, wall paneling, doors and frames. The company has been an Epicor Kinetic user for just over 10 years and moved from the on-premises version to the Epicor Industry Cloud version in 2023, according to Tyler Madsen, director at Madsen's.
The company is in the initial phases of using the agentic AI in Epicor Prism and is anticipating productivity gains, he said.
"We've tested it a bit to see that it does have the capabilities," Madsen said. "It's not at 100% yet, but it's getting close."
For example, a project that involves producing 300 or 400 doors currently must be summarized manually by going through every door line by line, he said. An Epicor Prism agent can filter and summarize the information in a few minutes.
"I see a lot of potential in it for just picking out the relevant data that we're going to need," Madsen said. "Filtering out all the excess stuff that you don't need will save hours on the front end of things."
Having that AI assistant to be able to provide that insight saves a ton of time.
Tyler MadsenDirector, Madsen's Millwork & Custom Cabinets
The agentic AI can also help users perform tasks in Epicor Kinetic, like how to create a purchase order.
"It also helps save time and effort with people coming in and asking how to do stuff," Madsen said. "Having that AI assistant to be able to provide that insight saves a ton of time. It'll give bullet points on how to do that, tell them where to go and give them the reference documents as well."
Epicor Prism AI is a useful tool for manufacturers that should help customers improve productivity, according to analysts.
Prism compares well with Infor Velocity Suite, a cloud ERP automation and generative AI services bundle, according to Predrag Jakovljevic, principal industry analyst at Technology Evaluation Centers.
Prism's industry-focused AI agents enable users to query their systems in natural language and quickly return an answer or recommendation, he said.
"It looks like a nifty tool for viewing and discovering info," Jakovljevic said.
However, the extra consumption costs could be a concern, and Prism doesn't allow users to design their own AI capabilities yet, he said.
Prism takes a pragmatic and business-driven approach to AI, according to R "Ray" Wang, principal analyst and founder at Constellation Research.
The platform is bolstered by strong use cases that demonstrate value for Epicor's ERP customers, particularly in supply chain, as well as deep industry knowledge and experience for the auto, building supply, distribution, manufacturing and retail segments, Wang said.
"Epicor's AI product is a smart way to approach supply chain processes," he said. "They've done a good job showing business value in agentic AI, and they have a lot of good qualities."
Carbon costs as currency
Epicor also unveiled Carbon Cost Rollup, a carbon accounting application designed to help customers put a value on carbon emissions for sustainability reporting.
Carbon Cost Rollup allows organizations to treat CO2 emissions as a currency, which can help them be specific in ESG emissions compliance reporting, according to Vohra.
The application is embedded in Epicor Kinetic, the manufacturing-focused ERP application in the Epicor Industry ERP Cloud Suite.
Customers have been asking to get carbon accounting embedded into the manufacturing costing process along with all the other accounting data, Vohra said.
"Our thought process was, when you start your costing process, what if you can start to include the carbon emissions calculation associated with it, starting at the part level," he said. "This is about supply chain decisions and carbon costing information that can get rolled up and presented as part of the decision-making framework for business executives."
Jim O'Donnell is a news director for Informa TechTarget who covers ERP and other enterprise applications.
