The landscape of enterprise resource planning (ERP) is continuously evolving, with AI-driven innovations shaping the way businesses streamline operations and improve decision-making. Acumatica, a leading cloud-based ERP provider, has introduced a new wave of AI-powered functionality designed to enhance efficiency and automation for industry-specific processes. At the Acumatica Summit 2025 in Las Vegas, the company unveiled a series of significant updates, reaffirming its commitment to providing robust and scalable ERP solutions tailored for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Industry-Specific AI Enhancements in Acumatica Cloud ERP
Acumatica Cloud ERP caters to businesses across various industries, offering specialized editions for construction, distribution, manufacturing, retail, and professional services, in addition to a more generalized General Business Edition. The platform follows a biannual release cycle, with R1 and R2 updates each year, ensuring continuous improvement and innovation.
During the summit, Acumatica introduced AI enhancements across all its industry editions, each designed to solve industry-specific challenges and optimize business operations:
- Distribution Edition: New price and catalog controls improve inventory and pricing management, allowing distributors to maintain better oversight of product catalogs and pricing structures.
- Manufacturing Edition: Enhanced real-time material availability tracking provides greater visibility into production processes, ensuring manufacturers can anticipate and manage supply chain constraints effectively. Advanced planning and scheduling views further streamline manufacturing workflows.
- Construction Edition: Pro forma project billing enhancements improve project financial management, while integrations with leading construction software vendors Stack and Job Planner enhance project planning and execution.
- Retail Edition: A strategic partnership with e-commerce giant Shopify allows seamless integration between Acumatica and Shopify’s platform, helping retailers synchronize inventory, orders, and customer data efficiently.
- Professional Services Edition: Integration with the Project Manager application facilitates better resource planning and project scheduling, enhancing productivity for service-based businesses.
Acumatica AI Studio and Acumatica Labs: Empowering AI Development
In addition to AI-powered functionality within the core ERP product, Acumatica introduced two new initiatives aimed at fostering AI-driven development:
- Acumatica AI Studio: This low-code platform allows businesses to develop and extend AI functionality within Acumatica ERP. With AI Studio, organizations can automate complex workflows while ensuring data privacy and security. This is particularly beneficial for businesses seeking customized AI solutions without requiring extensive programming expertise.
- Acumatica Labs: This initiative establishes a customer preview program that provides early access to upcoming features, allowing businesses to test new capabilities and provide feedback. Some key developments expected in Acumatica’s 2025 R1 and R2 releases include:
§ Advanced kitting
§ Order orchestration
§ Shop floor kiosks for manufacturers
§ Customer special orders
§ Document Templates for the Professional Services Edition
By involving customers in the co-innovation process, Acumatica ensures its solutions remain relevant and practical, addressing real-world business needs.
Competitive Landscape: How Acumatica Stacks Up
Industry analysts have acknowledged the value of Acumatica’s latest AI enhancements, though they note that these updates are not radically disruptive in the cloud ERP market. According to Predrag Jakovljevic, principal industry analyst at Technology Evaluation Centers, the new scheduling and work instruction features bring Acumatica closer to competitors like Epicor and Plex in the manufacturing ERP sector. Additionally, enhanced functionality in the Professional Services Edition strengthens Acumatica’s position against platforms like Oracle NetSuite and Certain.
Acumatica AI Studio offers businesses a low-code environment for developing AI-driven workflows, a feature that aligns with similar offerings from industry giants like Epicor Prism, SAP Joule, and Microsoft Copilot. However, Acumatica appears to be ahead of many midmarket ERP vendors, with more flexibility in AI agent design compared to solutions like Epicor Prism, which primarily focuses on data visualization rather than AI creation.
A Pragmatic Approach to AI in ERP
While some ERP vendors focus on broad AI capabilities without clear application, Acumatica’s AI strategy is distinctly pragmatic. According to Joshua Greenbaum, principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting, Acumatica’s AI approach is business-oriented rather than technology-first. The company prioritizes solving industry-specific challenges instead of creating generic AI tools with unclear business applications.
Acumatica Labs further reinforces this practical approach by formalizing the company’s customer collaboration efforts. This initiative ensures that new features are tested and refined based on real business needs rather than speculative development.
Strategic Partnerships: Strengthening Business Operations
One of the most noteworthy announcements from the Acumatica Summit 2025 was the deepened integration with Shopify. This collaboration benefits businesses looking to serve both B2C and B2B customers from a unified platform. With this integration, retailers using Acumatica can manage a single product catalog with different views, tailored to wholesale and direct-to-consumer customers.
As Greenbaum points out, Shopify is a critical platform for many Acumatica customers, and this integration enhances operational efficiency. By aligning with an industry leader like Shopify, Acumatica strengthens its value proposition, making its platform even more attractive to businesses managing e-commerce and retail operations.
Conclusion: A Forward-Looking ERP for SMEs
Acumatica’s latest AI-driven updates reaffirm its position as a leading midmarket ERP provider, focusing on real-world applications that improve efficiency and automation across industries. By introducing tailored AI functionality, launching AI Studio for low-code AI development, and fostering co-innovation through Acumatica Labs, the company continues to provide tangible value to SMEs.
While its AI capabilities may not be groundbreaking in the broader ERP landscape, Acumatica’s industry-specific approach ensures its customers gain practical, day-to-day benefits from these innovations. Coupled with strategic partnerships like Shopify, Acumatica is positioning itself as a robust ERP solution that adapts to evolving business needs.
With continued enhancements planned for the 2025 R1 and R2 releases, Acumatica is well on its way to delivering even more sophisticated and impactful ERP solutions for SMEs looking to leverage AI for business growth.
