Looking Ahead: ERP in 2026

About this issue

Looking Ahead: ERP in 2026

What must enterprise systems become as AI begins to influence both decisions and execution? ERP News Magazine Issue 56, November 2025, looks ahead to the technologies and organizational changes expected to shape ERP in 2026. The issue connects AI governance, conversational interfaces, cloud architecture, cybersecurity, and industry-specific functionality with the practical requirements of organizations modernizing their operations.

Its interviews and analysis explore a shared tension: businesses want automation and faster access to information while retaining control over data, financial processes, and operational risk. The result is an ERP outlook grounded in implementation choices, governance, and the human capabilities needed to turn technology into sustainable value.

Executive Perspectives: Usable AI, Clear Permissions, and Secure Operations

Jeremy Larsen, Vice President of Product Management at Acumatica, examines the 2025 R2 release through an approach centered on human control. He explains AI Studio's connections to customer-selected language models, approval steps, role-based access, and reversible updates. The discussion also covers Project 360, warehouse order orchestration, traceability, and a gradual transition to the modern interface. It distinguishes existing safeguards from planned 2026 capabilities, including automated masking of sensitive prompt data.

The Unanet Product Team describes Wyatt as a conversational co-pilot for project managers, finance leaders, and executives. Natural-language interaction, proactive notifications, adaptive workspaces, and role-aware access are presented as ways to make ERP information more accessible. The interview outlines a Q1 2026 rollout for Unanet AE ERP, with further products to follow. These release plans are part of the issue's outlook rather than evidence of completed deployment at publication.

Juan Perez-Etchegoyen, CTO of Onapsis, discusses how attacks against SAP applications can disrupt the business processes they support. His interview connects vulnerability management, patch validation, integration security, and executive accountability. The emphasis is on coordination between security, IT, and business leadership, with AI-assisted prioritization supporting environment-specific remediation decisions.

Ben Hussey, Co-CEO of Katana, explains an integration-first approach to SMB inventory and production management. He discusses cloud-native architecture, demand forecasting, supplier flexibility, multichannel operations, and connections with commerce and accounting systems. The interview frames usability and implementation speed as important considerations for smaller teams, while describing further investment in inventory capabilities and the integration ecosystem.

Transformation Economics and Manufacturing Readiness

Emma O’Brien, Founder and CEO of Embridge Consulting, argues that public-sector ERP procurement must account for the full cost of organizational change. People, process redesign, data readiness, leadership, and continuing support deserve attention alongside licensing. Eric Ethridge, Senior Technical Account Manager at DoiT, examines Cloud Financial Management and FinOps as complementary ways to connect cloud spending with ownership, forecasting, and business priorities.

Global Shop Solutions sets out four approaches to supply chain disruption: proactive forecasting, supplier diversification, informed reshoring, and inventory optimization. Its Cardinal Systems example describes more reliable inventory, shorter lead times, barcode-based workflows, and documented processes after ERP adoption, without supplying quantified before-and-after measures.

Amit Sharma, President of Manufacturing ERP at QAD, reviews the 2025 fall release, including Champion AI, warehouse management, scheduling, industry functionality, and implementation support. BatchMaster's eleven-trend outlook and Absolute ERP's leadership article consider ERP as a platform for visibility, adaptability, and strategic decision-making. Their forward-looking positions are treated as contributor perspectives rather than universal outcomes.

Industry Clouds, Tax Expertise, and Context Engineering

Mason Whitaker, President of Volt Technologies, examines AI, automation, industry clouds, and composable architecture, with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central as a practical reference. Miley Johnson of TechImplement explores small-business ERP adoption through low-code configuration, modular applications, mobile access, analytics, and training.

Gail Cole of Avalara explains why tax-related AI requires validated domain content and attention to effective dates. Her article uses a historical tax-rate example to illustrate how confident responses can still misinterpret timing. Matt Ely, Field CTO at IFS.ai, develops the broader idea of context engineering: aligning accessible data, semantics, security boundaries, feedback, and human oversight so agents can act meaningfully across enterprise workflows.

Industry Developments: Practical Innovation and Market Change

The news section covers Aptean AppCentral 2.0, QAD | Redzone's collaboration with AWS on Champion AI, and Rootstock's acquisition of Praxis Solutions with Ohad Idan's appointment as Vice President of Product. Sage Intacct's updates address close automation, consolidation, connected insurance data, expense management, and AI transparency, while retaining distinctions between general availability and early access.

Further coverage includes Appficiency's investment in AskCipher, Auditoria.AI's recognition by The Financial Technology Report, and Capgemini research on the gap between marketing AI enthusiasm and reported effectiveness. The issue also reports the opening of a European Commission investigation into SAP maintenance and support practices, alongside SAP's response; allegations are not presented as established findings.

Customer Results and Emerging Applications

PROCare's Orderwise implementation appears as a Forterro announcement with a detailed customer example. It reports daily order processing increasing from 50 to more than 200, picking accuracy reaching 99%, and expanded warehouse operations. These are attributed results from a particular business, not benchmarks guaranteed for other ERP projects.

EKU Power Drives' Odoo story follows an engineering company connecting production, purchasing, inventory, and other workflows across Germany and the United States. Odoo Studio supports adaptation to operational and reporting requirements. The case describes purchasing work moving from three people to two while maintaining control, presented as a 33% procurement efficiency improvement. German accounting implementation and further integration remain planned steps.

Capgemini's UNICEF-related story describes the Green Career Assistant developed through the Global Data Science Challenge 2025 using AWS and Mistral AI technologies. The winning solution connects skills, training, and green career opportunities through explainable recommendations and human review. UNICEF receives the blueprint and source code, with initial implementation planned for Brazil; scaled employment or climate outcomes are not established.

Across these contributions, Issue 56 presents ERP's next phase as a combination of greater intelligence and stronger foundations. Organizations evaluating AI-enabled ERP can use the issue to consider where automation fits, what context it requires, and how people remain accountable as enterprise systems take on more work.