ERP trends that leaders should plan for in 2026

1. Agentic AI

AI can reshape business workflows in many different ways. It can help improve customer satisfaction and reduce organizational costs, among other benefits, although the technology can also bring disadvantages that organizations must guard against.

According to McKinsey's "The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation," 88 percent of survey respondents said their company is using AI in at least one aspect of the business.

Agentic AI use in ERP will continue to increase. One use case for agentic AI in ERP software is creating forecasts for supply chain leaders, which can help improve leaders' decision-making because of their increased access to data. AI-powered forecasts can also potentially improve companies' overall revenue because supply chain leaders will be able to make better decisions that will potentially prevent loss of funds.

Improved forecasts can also reduce overall company risk, as the organization will be better prepared for potential business problems. However, using AI in general brings some potential issues that CIOs, COOs and other C-suite leaders must be aware of before adding the technology to their company's workflows. Possible problems include AI access to confidential data, opacity in terms of AI processes, and AI producing incorrect answers.

2. ERP data architecture readiness

AI’s reliance on data means that companies' ERP data architecture must be in a proper state for AI to use.

In order for AI to work as well as possible, the data it uses must be gathered in the proper storage mechanisms instead of scattered across various locations. Also, the data must be correct and avoid duplication.

In many companies, the same data exists in different formats across departments. Different business units often use their own version of the ERP system, with each version independently managing its master data, which can lead to a fragmented or siloed data landscape. These issues impede enterprise analytics and reporting.

As return on investment for AI takes center stage, having the proper data foundation in place can help organizations achieve a better ROI on their AI.

3. Continued pressure to shift to cloud ERP

Moving organizations to the cloud will continue to be a major topic in the ERP world in 2026.

SAP's support for the majority of its on-premises ERP Central Component customers will end in 2027, while Epicor recently announced that the last releases of some of its on-premises products, including Kinetic, will occur between 2026 and 2028.

Cloud ERP can offer some benefits over on-premises software, with companies able to hand off the responsibility of supporting the system to the vendor. Also, costs for companies can be lower. That said, the pricing for cloud ERP can be difficult to understand, and vendors decide much of the configuration settings for the product, giving companies less freedom than with on-premises software.

Moving from on-premises to cloud is a major undertaking. Ninety-five percent of respondents to a 2025 study by Rimini Street said creating a positive ROI case for SAP's S/4HANA is not easy to achieve.

4. Composable ERP

Composable ERP and the flexibility it brings will continue to be a major topic in the ERP world.

Traditional ERP platforms are built with tightly coupled components, which can make it difficult to swap in a different module. Composable ERP enables organizations to mix and match individual ERP modules, including potentially using modules from different vendors, and to customize them if needed. Users can add components using no-code development.

Another advantage of composable ERP is that its increased flexibility enables companies to adapt faster to technology changes, which can help improve companies' revenue. However, companies must be using at least some cloud ERP applications in order to pursue the composable ERP approach.

5. Supply chain visibility 

Supply chain visibility, along with the technology that can improve it, will continue to be a focus in 2026.

Economic and geopolitical uncertainty will lead to a focus on improving visibility in the supply chain. Some leaders anticipate that AI will be part of this, with 38% of supply chain leaders stating that they believe generative AI will help improve visibility, according to the "Supply Chain Horizons 2025" report by Logility.

Some of the technology that can help improve supply chain visibility includes predictive analytics, which can alert supply chain leaders about business changes such as an anticipated increase in customer demand for a particular product, and IoT sensors, which can give insight into products' locations. Digital twins can also provide companies with the ability to experiment with different situations before moving forward.

As in the past, some potential problems can negatively affect supply chain visibility. Companies must have strong relationships with other supply chain stakeholders to achieve optimum supply chain visibility, and data problems can lead to an incomplete picture of the supply chain.

6. Supplier relationship management

Economic and geopolitical uncertainty will also emphasize the continued importance of supplier relationship management.

Supplier relationship management can help companies improve their revenue and reduce risks to the supply chain, among other benefits, because properly managing the relationships makes transactions between companies and their suppliers go more smoothly. Supplier relationship management usually begins with the segmentation of suppliers, with supply chain professionals creating plans for the management of each relationship after determining whether each supplier is preferred, transactional or another supplier category.

Centralizing communications with suppliers can help improve supplier relationships, as all stakeholders will have access to the same data.

Rahul Awati is a PMP-certified project manager with IT infrastructure experience spanning storage, compute and enterprise networking.