Magazine Reads

Agility’s $2.5B Wall Street Pitch Tests Whether Warehouse Humanoids Are Ready for Real Work

Agility Robotics is going public through a $2.5B SPAC merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI—a move that would make it the first US-listed pure-play humanoid robotics company. With 65,000 hours of real-world warehouse operations and $300 million in Digit v5 orders, Agility is testing whether physical AI can survive Wall Street's scrutiny of ROI, uptime, and supply chain integration.

ERP Today Awards

Clinical Applications

ERP Today Awards: AI, Operational Execution, Real-World Impact Defined ERP Leadership in 2025

The ERP Today Awards 2025 make one thing clear: ERP leadership is no longer defined by deployment success, but by real-world impact. Across five award categories—spanning AI innovation, operational execution, customer experience, SMB transformation, and large enterprise projects—the 2025 winners set a new standard for what it means to lead with enterprise technology.

enterprise AI ROI

Analytics and AI

AI’s Token Binge Is Over—Now Enterprise Budgets Want Proof

Enterprises that once rewarded employees for maximizing AI usage are now discovering how quickly token costs can spiral. As finance leaders tighten budgets, AI pilots are being judged on workflow‑level outcomes, model routing discipline, and whether they actually improve delivery, code quality, and ERP operations—not just how many tokens they consume.

Governance, Risk, and Compliance

AI Made Code Faster—Tricentis Says Quality Teams Are Falling Behind

Tricentis’ 2026 Quality Transformation Report shows that AI has accelerated software creation faster than many organizations can validate it, turning quality engineering into a boardroom issue for ERP and enterprise application leaders.

AWS agentic AI SAP ERP exceptions - MCP agentic ERP infrastructure with AgentCore

Analytics and AI

MCP Is Becoming the Plumbing of Agentic ERP—ERP Leaders Need to Understand It

MCP is emerging as the protocol layer that lets AI agents discover and call enterprise tools, data sources, and workflows. For ERP leaders, the opportunity is lower integration friction. The risk is that access control, auditability, and cost discipline move closer to the agent boundary.

Analytics and AI

GenAI in ERP Needs a Smaller Starting Point and a Harder Business Proposition

Enterprise leaders, while ambitious in their generative AI strategies, face a significant gap between their AI aspirations and actual production adoption, as illustrated by Mukesh Kumar's insights on targeted automation in ERP systems addressing specific, high-impact problems.

Application Development and Integration

Can AI Break the ERP Change-Order Cycle? Tessera Labs Just Raised $60M to Try

Tessera Labs’ $60 million funding round puts a spotlight on AI-native ERP modernization, raising a new question for CIOs: how much of the migration, data, code, and documentation work that once required large consulting teams can now be automated without weakening governance?

Armstrong AI data SAP

Data and Data Management

‘AI Is a Business Challenge, Not an IT One; Data Is the IT Problem,’ Q&A with Armstrong World Industries

Armstrong World Industries is proactively developing a strong data foundation to effectively scale AI across the enterprise, driven by the complexity of their data environment due to mergers and acquisitions, emphasizing that AI is a business challenge requiring strategic integration rather than merely an IT fix.

SAP NS2 defense

ERP Strategy and Planning

SAP NS2’s FedRAMP+ IL5 Authorization Opens a New Cloud ERP Path for Defense Programs

The recent FedRAMP+ IL5 authorization by SAP NS2 enables US Department of War organizations to deploy SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP BTP in a secure cloud environment, simplifying compliance for defense ERP modernization and addressing the complexities of operating within stringent regulatory frameworks.

Orbital Data Center Investment

Analytics and AI

AI Investment Test? SpaceX IPO Turns Orbital Data Centers into a Wall Street Bet

SpaceX's recent IPO has transformed the concept of orbital data centers into a viable public market opportunity, aiming to harness their potential for AI infrastructure while facing scrutiny over the economic feasibility and technical challenges of such an innovative approach.

Open-source ERP

ERP Strategy and Planning

Open-Source ERP Providers Get a Second Look as AI Changes the ERP Shortlist

Open-source ERP platforms like ERPNext and Odoo are gaining traction and visibility in the market, particularly among small- to mid-sized businesses, as they offer lower licensing costs and greater flexibility, though they require careful consideration of implementation and support challenges.

Analytics and AI

The Next Enterprise AI Wave Will Reach Beyond Agents, Says SAP Labs US Managing Director

At SAP Sapphire, Global Head of Research & Innovation Yaad Oren discussed SAP's forward-looking exploration of emerging technologies like AI, data, user experience, robotics, quantum computing, and cloud architecture, urging customers to embrace current AI capabilities while also preparing for future innovations.

ERP Strategy and Planning

SAP Sapphire Interview: AI Agents Will Force HR to Rethink Workforce Management, Says SAP SuccessFactors CRO

SAP SuccessFactors is addressing the pivotal question of how to manage AI agents within the workforce, emphasizing the need for strategic workforce planning and skill development, as companies navigate the complexities of integrating AI into HR functions and organizational structures post-COVID.

Orbital data centers

Analytics and AI

AI’s Data Center Crunch Sends Compute Ambitions into Orbit

As demand for infrastructure grows due to AI, cloud and space companies are investigating orbital data centers as a solution to terrestrial constraints like land and energy shortages, with initiatives from companies like SpaceX and Google, although challenges remain regarding optimal workloads and economic viability.

Analytics and AI

When AI Spend Outpaces Value: A Reality Check for SMBs

As small and midsize businesses increasingly integrate AI into operations, they are facing a shift towards viewing AI as a recurring operational expense rather than a simple software enhancement, prompting the need for clear governance and targeted use cases to ensure measurable value while controlling costs.

Databricks and SnowflakDatabricks vs Snowflake enterprise AI data war lakehouse architecturee battle over AI and data

Analytics and AI

Databricks’ $134B Valuation Puts the Enterprise AI Data War in Focus

Databricks is signaling a pivotal shift in enterprise AI spending towards essential data platforms for effective model utilization, highlighted by its recent $7 billion funding round and competition with Snowflake to manage data for analytics and agentic AI.

SAP Executive Interviews

Analytics and AI

SAP Sapphire Interviews: SAP Executives Say AI Is Pushing ERP Back to the Center of Business Strategy

At SAP Sapphire 2026, Maura Hameroff and David Vallejo emphasized that AI is transforming ERP systems into strategic business frameworks that enhance enterprise decision-making by integrating industry knowledge and addressing fragmented data, thereby enabling companies to efficiently navigate modern challenges in supply chain management and overall business operations.

SAP Sapphire Madrid Customer Keynote

Analytics and AI

SAP Sapphire Madrid Customer Keynote: Enterprise AI Value Depends on Business Ownership

The SAP Sapphire Madrid keynote highlighted the shift in AI discussions from announcements to operational integration, emphasizing that AI's value relies on governance, user trust, and practical implementation within business processes, as showcased by various case studies from companies like Ericsson, Fonterra, and EssilorLuxottica.

SAP agentic AI manufacturing Hannover Messe 2026

Governance, Risk, and Compliance

Q&A: Tirumala Rao Chimpiri on Why ERP Modernization Fails After Go-Live

Organizations often struggle with ERP modernization post-go-live due to inadequate focus on operational discipline, governance, and continuous improvement, where successful implementation doesn’t guarantee that workflows and processes have meaningfully changed or improved.

SAP Sapphire Madrid

Analytics and AI

SAP Sapphire Madrid: Autonomous Enterprise Pitch Meets Europe’s AI Control Test

At SAP Sapphire Madrid, the company introduced the Autonomous Enterprise as the next evolution in ERP, focusing on AI-driven solutions tailored for European markets, emphasizing sovereignty and regulatory compliance in data handling and operational control.

SAP Joule AI

Analytics and AI

SAP Pushes Joule Toward Enterprise Execution, but Readiness Remains the Constraint

SAP is turning Joule into an enterprise execution surface, not just an AI assistant, but the layer through which ERP users interact with SAP data, agents, generated workspaces, voice, desktop tools, and cross-system workflows.

Boomi World 2026

Analytics and AI

Boomi World 2026 Pushes Enterprise Platform Toward Agentic AI Governance

At Boomi World 2026, Boomi unveiled a comprehensive strategy to transition AI agents from pilot programs to enterprise workflows through enhanced orchestration, connectivity, context, and governance, supported by partnerships with Red Hat and Couchbase, ultimately positioning itself as an active data foundation for the emerging 'agentic enterprise'.

Cloud Platform and Technology

Epicor Insights 2026 Makes Cloud Migration a Trust Test, and It Is Not Alone

At Epicor Insights 2026, the company faces its most consequential conference yet: with on-premises Kinetic development ending at the 2028.1 release, the pressure is on to demonstrate that cloud ERP migration is not just necessary for manufacturers and distributors — but genuinely worth it. This analysis examines how Epicor is addressing the trust gap through security governance, data architecture strategy, and change management, and what still needs to be proven on the conference floor.

SAP Sapphire customer keynote

Analytics and AI

SAP Sapphire Customer Keynote Shows AI Value Depends on Readiness, Data, and Standardization

At SAP Sapphire 2026, the customer keynote made a definitive case: AI value in the enterprise depends on readiness, data standardization, and clean core ERP foundations—not experimentation. Through transformation stories from Lockheed Martin, ExxonMobil, Levi Strauss, and Aeropuertos Argentina, SAP reinforced that organizations succeeding with AI have built the operational and data infrastructure to support it on SAP S/4HANA and BTP.

SAP Autonomous Enterprise

Analytics and AI

Sapphire’s Post-Keynote Q&A Unpacks The Hard Part of the Autonomous Enterprise: Delivery, Governance, Trust

The post-keynote Q&A at SAP Sapphire 2026 put SAP's Autonomous Enterprise strategy under the closest scrutiny yet, with executives pressed on what's actually ready for production, how hybrid and on-premise customers participate, and why enterprises should trust AI agents inside live business processes. This ERP Today analysis unpacks SAP's answers on AI governance, the Knowledge Graph differentiator, cloud migration strategy, and API compliance controls.

SAP Sapphire 2026 Keynote

Analytics and AI

‘Will SAP Be a Software Company in the Future?’ Sapphire 2026 Keynote Maps SAP’s New ERP Stack

At SAP Sapphire 2026, CEO Christian Klein declared that SAP is becoming a business AI company, introducing the Autonomous Suite, Joule Studio 2.0, a company memory layer, and centralized agent governance as the pillars of SAP's reimagined ERP stack.

Future ERP systems will likely undergo a significant transformation, from static and reactive to dynamic, event-driven platforms powered by agentic AI, enabling them to execute workflows and interact autonomously across business processes. Image from Adobe.

Analytics and AI

Event-Driven Agentic AI: What Happens When ERP Becomes the Operator

The ERP landscape is undergoing a transformative shift towards event-driven architecture and agentic AI, moving from static systems reliant on manual input to autonomous, adaptive platforms that can proactively respond to business events, enhancing operational agility and decision-making while necessitating careful governance and data quality management.

ERP transformation

ERP Strategy and Planning

Transformation Capability Management: Why ERP Programs Drift Even with Good Change Management

ERP programs falter not from inadequate change management but from early weak structural decisions, with the need for 'Transformation Capability Management' (TCM) to ensure organizations build durable abilities rather than depend on external partners, as traditional change management alone cannot address underlying capability, capacity, and governance challenges.

AI is reshaping enterprise partnerships across ERP, supply chain, governance, and ecosystem collaboration

Analytics and AI

AI Is Changing the Rules of Enterprise Partnerships: Q&A with Blue Yonder’s VP Kelley Lear

In this ERP Today Q&A, Blue Yonder’s Kelley Lear explains how AI is changing the rules of enterprise partnerships. The discussion covers agentic AI, hyperscaler and ERP alliances, supply chain disruption, data readiness, governance, and what separates outcome-focused partnerships from those that stall.

Analytics and AI

Sovereign AI Gains Ground in Asia as Control, Compliance, Infrastructure Collide

Sovereign AI is gaining traction in Asia as governments, like India and Singapore, prioritize local control over AI infrastructure and data governance, prompting enterprises to adapt their systems and strategies to comply with varying regulations and infrastructure conditions across the region.

Earnings

Financial Management

Designing Finance for Scale: Why Charts of Accounts and Dimensions Matter More Than ERP Features

ERP projects often face significant challenges not during implementation but years later due to underlying financial architecture decisions—including chart of accounts and entity structures—being overlooked in favor of immediate functionality, which can hinder scalability and complicate management reporting as business complexities evolve.