Conversational UI in ERP: Benefits, tips, and examples

According to our Business Solutions Survey, businesses say they waste an average of $3,000 a month on unused software. For major solutions like enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, underuse can lead to a low ROI and costly productivity gaps.

Some business solution providers address this by adding a conversational user interface (UI) to make their software more intuitive. With conversational UI capabilities in ERP, you can use natural language to interact with the system, rather than navigating complex menus.

Let’s explore how this powerful technology works, what it can do for your business, and what future advancements may hold.

Jump to:

• What is conversational UI in ERP?
• The building blocks of conversational UI
• The use cases of conversational UI in your ERP
• Benefits of adopting conversational UI in ERP
• What's next for conversational UI in ERP?
• Boost productivity and enhance profitability

What is conversational UI in ERP?

Conversational UI in ERP is a user interface that lets you interact with your ERP system using spoken or written language (rather than clicking through lengthy navigation paths). In other words, it translates a user’s natural language requests into system commands.

Conversational UI gives finance teams faster access to ERP data, which reduces time spent navigating menus and accelerates decision-making.

To accomplish this, ERP tools leverage technologies such as machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence that enables systems to recognize patterns and improve responses over time.

The building blocks of conversational UI

Conversational UI may look simple on the surface, but a lot is happening under the hood. Below are four core components that define conversational UI and how they work inside modern ERP systems.

1. Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Purpose: Allow ERP systems to interpret naturally written or spoken requests.

NLP is the core technology that allows a UI to understand human language. It can parse a request and analyze its syntax, context, and tone. This is how AI-powered ERP systems break down user inputs, identify relevant keywords, and discern underlying intents.

2. Intent recognition and fulfillment

Purpose: Translate written or spoken requests into system commands.

Once NLP determines a user’s intent, the ERP software system maps it to a specific action or command. This allows the software to fulfill a request, such as pulling a report, updating a record, or creating a new entry.

For example, say a user asks, "What's our inventory level for product A?" The system uses NLP to recognize the intent ("inventory query") and the entity ("product A"), then fulfills the request by providing the relevant data.

3. Dialogue management

Purpose: Keep interactions flowing and make responses feel human-like.

Dialogue management is about maintaining the flow of the conversation, allowing the UI to support follow-up questions and clarification. It’s what makes interactions feel like a back-and-forth with a human instead of one-off commands.

Continuing our ERP system software example from the previous section, this is the step in which it responds to your query with: "Inventory for product A is 500 units. Do you want to check stock in another location?"

4. Integration and data retrieval

Purpose: Allow responses to reference real-time ERP system data.

Lastly, the conversational UI layer integrates with the ERP system’s core database and various modules. This allows the technology to go beyond simply returning a logical chain of words or numbers.

Thanks to this integration, the UI can access real-time data and perform actions across various aspects of the ERP platform. For CFOs, this means faster entity roll-ups and real-time variance checks across multiple entities. As a result, it's easier to do multidimensional accounting across multiple entities.

The use cases of conversational UI in your ERP

Conversational UI bypasses complex menus and search functions, allowing you to interact with your ERP system using natural language. Here are some common applications to help you visualize how you might use it.

Voice commands

Voice commands like “Create a new purchase order,” or “Show me the Q3 financial reports,” let you speak requests to the ERP system, hands-free.

This can be invaluable when typing out requests is challenging or when you need to multitask. For instance, a warehouse manager might use voice commands to check inventory levels while handling products.

Chatbots and virtual assistants

Chatbots are relatively simple AI-powered agents that can interact with users through text-based conversations. They’re ideal for automating repetitive tasks and providing instant support.

Typically, chatbots follow pre-determined rules or decision trees. It's common to see conversational UI used to power ones that let employees submit expense reports or answer common questions.

For example, a finance team member could ask the chatbot, "What is the budget variance for Project XYZ this quarter?" and the chatbot would instantly pull the real-time figures.

Proactive alerts and notifications

In addition to answering prompts, conversational UIs can initiate communications under certain conditions. This shifts the UI from reactive responses to proactive alerts that automatically surface time-critical information.

For example, you might configure your ERP system to notify you when a project is behind schedule, sending a message like: "Project XYZ is 10 days behind schedule. Do you want to see a full list of overdue tasks?”

Multimodal interaction

Multimodal interaction is the ability to combine different input and output methods, such as voice, text, and visual elements. This creates a richer, more flexible ERP experience, letting users interact with the system in the way that best suits their situation.

For example, say you verbally ask your conversational UI, “What’s our current stock by product line?” In addition to responding aloud, the system displays a chart on screen that summarizes the data.

Benefits of adopting conversational UI in ERP

The value of adopting conversational UI goes far beyond simple convenience. Let’s explore some of its more practical ERP benefits to help you understand why it could push the needle in your organization.

Increased user efficiency and productivity

Conversational UI can significantly reduce the hours you spend on repetitive daily tasks. For example, it can automate time-consuming tasks such as data entry and menu navigation.

The National Bureau of Economic Research found that access to AI-based conversational assistants increased productivity by an average of 14% (34% for novice workers).

AI-powered financial management software, such as Intuit Enterprise Suite, can deliver similar productivity benefits for accounting and finance workflows.

Improved data accuracy

In addition to reducing the need for manual data entry, conversational UI can guide users with prompts and validation when manual entry is needed. In combination, this can significantly lower the frequency of data entry errors.

According to the World Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology and Sciences (WJAETS), conversational UI in CRM and ERP systems reduced employee mistakes in up to 78% of general workflow procedures.

Faster decision-making

A conversational UI can provide employees with immediate access to real-time data, which can help them (and you) confidently make informed decisions on the spot.

The same WJAETS study mentioned in the previous section also found that incorporating AI agents into CRM and ERP systems improved the decision-making impact of current processes by 35%.

Enhanced user training and adoption

ERP software often has a steep learning curve, which can lead to employee resistance after implementation. This is especially common when leaders fail to perform gap analysis in advance or neglect change management.

However, human-like interfaces lower the barriers to entry and make it easier for new users to learn ERP systems. This has the potential to increase employee adoption rates significantly.

What's next for conversational UI in ERP?

Conversational UI has already made ERP systems much more accessible and intuitive, but the technology will only continue to evolve. Here are some examples of what that looks like:

Advanced personalization

As conversational UIs continue to develop, they have the potential to start learning your habits and preferences over time. This would allow them to surface highly personalized interactions and insights.

In other words, they will likely anticipate your needs. Rather than simply recalling your previous instructions, they could begin taking genuinely proactive steps.

For example, say you’re a project manager and frequently ask for status updates at the start of each week. Your ERP system could identify this pattern and start sending one automatically without you prompting it.

Deeper integration with IoT and external data

Another promising development is further integrating conversational UIs with external data sources. This would allow them to reference information beyond what’s stored in their ERP system’s databases, making their answers even more insightful.

Market feeds are one likely candidate, such as those for material prices or exchange rates. Internet of Things (IoT) devices—internet-connected objects with embedded sensors—are another.

For example, imagine you own a construction business that builds modular homes. You could ask your conversational UI, “How might recent steel price trends affect our Q4 budget?” This could enable it to provide a response that combines ERP data with live market information.

Broader language and cultural support

There are already ongoing efforts to teach conversational UIs a wider range of languages and regional dialects. As a result, ERP systems will likely become even more accessible to global workforces.

Teams wouldn’t have to adapt to a single company-wide language. Instead, users would be able to interact with the business software in a way that feels natural to them.

For example, an employee in Mexico could ask about sales figures in Spanish. Meanwhile, a colleague in Germany could do the same, with both receiving accurate responses in their native language.

Boost productivity and enhance profitability

Conversational UI capabilities can make ERP solutions much more accessible and intuitive for your finance team. This new form of interaction is designed to enable faster data retrieval and execution of routine tasks, which can lower your overall operational costs.

AI agents like those in the Intuit Enterprise Suite can provide similar financial management benefits through an intuitive experience built for efficiency. For example, the Finance Agent streamlines goal performance monitoring by delivering monthly financial summaries and automating KPI analysis.