Why do you start with a current state data evaluation?
Develop a clear systems map identifying the most critical platforms for money-moving operations, specifically naming the owners of your enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management systems while defining their current capabilities. Since ERP manages finance, supply chain, and operations while CRM handles customer and sales activities, one must understand, for each core workflow, how the business decision connects to specific data fields and tracks against a single KPI. Inability to express this connection in plain language is a sign of unpreparedness for vendor selection, as this foundational clarity represents the minimum standard most boards require before approving any expenditure.
Why This Matters Now
Leaders are under pressure to demonstrate a return on investment from artificial intelligence, yet many struggle to make the case. The typical pattern emphasizes too much attention on models and not enough attention on the fit with daily work. Adoption appears high, but transformation is low because advice is often situated outside the workflow. The result feels like a value that never reaches the profit and loss statement, frequently referred to as P&L. Costs rise, pilots stall, and the next steering meeting becomes a defense, not a plan. The path out is simple to describe - put intelligence inside and judge vendors based on their fit for work, not on trivial model details.
Three key questions to consider:
- Does it integrate seamlessly into your ERP and CRM screens, allowing users to act without switching tools?
- Does it learn from feedback, retain memory, and improve week by week without needing a complete rebuild?
- Can it demonstrate business movement on one KPI within ninety days for mid-market and within one hundred eighty days for large enterprises?
Vendors that pass these tests will help you show return on investment, not just activity. Additionally, request clear data boundaries and a visible audit trail. Your data must stay separate and traceable by role, protecting trust across finance, risk, and audit. How do you move from promise to proof?
The Base Installation as Your Force Multiplier
A strong base installation is the first wave of embedded intelligence inside the tools your teams already use each day. The base does three things well. First, it brings predictions and alerts directly to the screen where work is saved. Second, it relies on the simplest judgments from people, so exceptions are routed to the correct owner. Third, it recommends the following best action, accompanied by a brief explanation and a clear indication of the expected impact. When this base resides inside ERP and CRM, users do not need to visit a separate portal, meaning the change is reflected in behavior, not in a slide. The base then becomes a force multiplier. Each new use case builds upon the same data, controls, and patterns, resulting in shorter time-to-value while costs remain contained.
What Embedded AI looks like in Practice
Predict and prevent: Use models to flag cash shortfalls before the weekend, identifying likely equipment failures, and to warn of supplier risk before a stockout impacts service levels.
Automate routine judgment: Let the system auto-match clean invoices, route exceptions by rule, and pre-clear low-risk items so people focus on the edge cases that matter.
Recommend and explain: Show the next best offer in CRM with the expected lift, express a new reorder point with the associated cost trade-off, and provide a concise reason in one sentence that leads to increased trust.
These three patterns account for most of the value that leaders can see and measure. They also make adoption easier because they meet people at work whom they already know.
Business vignettes leaders should care about:
Finance: A rolling forecast that updates as orders post reduces working capital shocks and lowers short-term borrowing. When cash is predictable, late adjustments and urgent calls to treasury fall away.
Supply chain: Dynamic reorder points that react to demand and lead time, cut inventory, and lift on-time fill rate. Emergency freight drops because the system sees risk earlier.
Manufacturing and operations: Predictive maintenance tied to production planning steadies throughput. Over time, unplanned downtime shrinks, and capacity planning becomes more honest.
Revenue and service: The next best actions within the CRM screen increase conversion and shorten the time from lead to revenue. First contact resolution improves when guidance is provided in context, rather than in a wiki.
Each vignette uses the same base pattern. The key is to put intelligence where the transaction occurs, keep people informed early, and measure the few metrics that directors respect.
How to Pick Vendors that will Deliver
Judge vendors on their fit to work, not on model trivia. Three questions to ask about their fit include:
- Does it reside within your ERP and CRM screens, allowing the user to act without switching tools?
- Does it learn from feedback, keep memory, and improve week by week without a complete rebuild?
- Can it prove business movement on one KPI within ninety days for mid-market companies and within one hundred eighty days for large enterprises?
Vendors that pass this evaluation will help you demonstrate a return on investment, not just activity. It is also essential to request clear data boundaries and a visible audit trail; your data must remain separate and traceable by role, which protects trust across finance, risk, and audit.
What Each Audience Needs to See
Technical leaders need confidence that the data is fit for purpose and that the system can be observed. Show lineage, freshness, and quality for the fields that drive the decision. Show version control, drift monitoring, and a simple rollback plan. Keep the build simple, reuse patterns, and avoid one-off logic that breaks at the first edge case.
C-level leaders require a concise P&L bridge that connects outcomes to cash or cost. Show the baseline, the intervention, and the after-state for a single KPI. Prioritize the removal of business process outsourcing spend, agency fees, and emergency charges before you discuss headcount. Maintain time-to-value visibility so the program remains credible.
Board directors need assurance that risk is effectively managed and value can be scaled. Show the guardrails for data, the controls for posting, and the plan to pause if outputs drift. Keep reporting sparse and steady. Effectively display cycle time, exception rate, and cost per transaction while showing them monthly in the same format.
How to Move Fast Without Breaking Things
A clear, simple plan to move quickly includes:
- Start with two or three use cases that have clear owners, clean enough data, and one KPI each.
- Ship a minimum viable model inside the existing screen with human review in the loop for the first month.
- Capture every correction as labeled data so the system learns.
- Monitor for drift from the start and keep a rollback plan ready.
- Track business metrics, not just model scores.
If the KPI does not move in the right direction, stop and fix the data that matters most before scaling. When one workflow works, clone the pattern to the next one with minimal change.
Common Traps to Avoid
Key components to avoid include:
- Treating AI as a lab project with no business owner.
- Treating the data problem as a one-time cleanse rather than a steady discipline.
- Buying a standalone app that people will not visit.
- Tracking model accuracy while ignoring exception rates, cycle time, and working capital.
- Overbuilding in-house when a partner could deliver faster.
- Skipping change management and communication, which is how trust is won.
Call to Action for the Next Quarter
Begin by conducting a comprehensive two-week review of current state data across five money-moving workflows, ensuring you identify the owners, key fields, baseline KPIs, and unacceptable risks for each process. Following this analysis, select two strategic use cases—one within finance and one in supply chain—and craft a single sentence for each that clearly defines success in measurable business terms.
Once you've established this foundation, stand up the base installation within your existing ERP and CRM systems, then deliver a minimum viable model that incorporates human review processes to ensure quality and accuracy. Maintain momentum by reporting weekly on your single most critical KPI while consistently tracking and displaying trend lines to visualize progress over time.
At quarter's end, prepare a concise one-page summary for each use case to present to both the executive sponsor and the board, showcasing the baseline performance, the intervention implemented, the resulting after state, and projections for the subsequent three iterations. Use this presentation to request the release of the next spending block only when KPIs demonstrate measurable improvement. Maintain strict controls when results fall short, and be prepared to shut down underperforming initiatives in favor of the following candidate workflow.
This disciplined approach transforms Artificial Intelligence from merely a cost center into a genuine capability multiplier by starting with solid data foundations, embedding intelligence directly into existing workflows, maintaining a rigorous focus on financial metrics, and scaling systematically only after the base installation demonstrates its ability to multiply results.
