Can AI work with the ERP you already have?
Yes. Most of the useful work sits around the ERP rather than inside it: reading emails and attachments, drafting the entry, and checking it against what the system already holds. A person approves each draft before it goes in, so the ERP stays the record of what was quoted and ordered. You don't need a new system to start.
Where does AI help between an RFQ and an order?
Wherever someone reads one document and types it into another: logging RFQs and drawings, keying purchase orders into sales orders, matching customer part numbers to yours, and drafting acknowledgements and chasers. It can also check each entry against the quote. None of it sets a price.
| Job | AI does | A person does |
|---|---|---|
| RFQs and drawings | Reads the enquiry, logs it, flags what's missing, finds past quotes | Decides whether to quote, and prices it |
| Purchase orders | Drafts the sales order and lists differences from the quote | Agrees the differences, approves the order |
| Part numbers | Suggests the match between their number and yours | Confirms every new match |
| Acknowledgements and chasers | Drafts them from the order and your dates | Checks dates with production, sends |
How can AI turn RFQs and drawings into quotes?
AI reads the enquiry email and its attachments, picks out the customer, part number, revision, material, quantities and dates, and logs them or starts a draft quote in your ERP. It flags what's missing and finds past quotes for the same part. Your estimator prices it, and a named person signs the quote off.
Drawings need the most care. AI can read a title block and a parts list, but a person checks the revision and anything it couldn't read before estimating starts. What a complete enquiry looks like is in What is an RFQ?
Can AI key purchase orders into sales orders?
Yes, as a draft. AI reads the customer's purchase order, finds the quotation it refers to and drafts the sales order lines in your ERP. It lists every difference from the quote: price, revision, quantity, date or terms. A person agrees the differences with the customer and approves the order before it's entered.
Sales order processing sets out the checks to make on every purchase order.
How does AI match customer part numbers to yours?
Many customers order against their own part numbers. AI can suggest the match from the description, the drawing number and your past orders, and fill it in when the match is already known. Keep one list of their numbers against yours, in your ERP if it can hold it, and have a person confirm every new match.
Can AI send order acknowledgements and chasers?
AI can draft them: the acknowledgement once an order is approved, chasers for open quotes and missing enquiry details, and replies to delivery-date queries from the dates in your ERP. Someone checks each date with production before it goes. Start with drafts a person sends, and only let a message go on its own once the drafts have been right for weeks.
What should you settle before you start?
Who signs off each kind of output, one way of writing part numbers and revisions, one place where enquiries and orders arrive, and a rule on what can go into an outside AI service. Then check what your ERP already does before you buy anything. AI copies whatever muddle it finds.
- Who signs off. A named person for quotes and one for orders, and what each of them checks.
- Part numbers and revisions. One number per part, the current revision marked, and old ones closed off.
- One inbox. Enquiries and orders arrive in one shared mailbox, not in personal ones.
- Where drawings and prices can go. Agree whether customer drawings and prices can leave your systems before anyone tries a tool.
- What your ERP already does. Your supplier may already offer some of this, so check your version and licence first.
What checks and controls should you keep?
A named person approves every AI draft before it reaches the ERP or a customer, and AI never sets a price or approves a quote. Give it the least access it needs, start with drafts rather than direct entry, and keep a record of what it read, what it drafted and who approved it.
Send any difference in price, revision, quantity or date to a person, and once the trial is over, spot-check a sample of entries each week.
Does your ERP already have AI built in?
It may. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has a Sales Order Agent that reads customer emails, creates a sales quote and turns it into a sales order once the customer confirms, with a person approving each outgoing message. SYSPRO describes AI that converts customer purchase orders into sales orders.
Features, licences and costs change, so ask your supplier what your version includes before you buy a separate tool.
How do you trial AI on your own orders?
Pick one job, such as keying purchase orders, and time it for two weeks before changing anything. Then run the trial for four weeks on your real orders, with a person approving every output. Compare the hours and how many drafts needed correcting, and carry on only if the job is quicker and the work is as good.
The free check shows which job to start with and what it costs you now.