Introduction: from hype to practice
AI is no longer hype, but reality. Where large enterprises were experimenting with artificial intelligence, now SMEs can also benefit. AI is faster, more consistent and opens doors that were previously closed due to cost or complexity.
An example from our practice: a customer wanted to offer its products on a Portuguese sales platform. With AI, we provided almost 50,000 items with a Portuguese description in a few hours - not by translating verbatim, but by matching the descriptions directly to the platform and the language of Portuguese teenagers. This would have taken weeks with traditional translation agencies. This example illustrates not only error reduction and cost savings, but especially the speed and scalability that AI adds.
Fear: "AI is taking over my job"
There are sometimes fears that AI is replacing jobs. It is true that some jobs will disappear or shift, but the story is more nuanced. AI can signal that an invoice may be fraudulent, but it still takes an employee to review and follow up. AI can signal that a competitor in Germany is making stunt offers, but it is the business owner or manager who decides whether an action will follow.
So AI does not take over work, but changes the way you do work. It supports employees with insights that were simply not available before.
New capabilities in Uniconta with AI
- Smarter invoice and receipt processing
Traditional scan-and-recognition has been around for some time and reduces errors, but with AI it goes faster and further. We can not only recognize invoices, but also have them checked for authenticity and automatically selected an appropriate general ledger account. That gives employees time to focus on valuable work: follow-up and decision-making. - Articles and market information
AI makes ERP a source of market information. Where you used to need a lot of time or outside agencies, AI can now provide daily answers to questions such as, "Who are my main competitors in Europe?", "What is the retail price in the Netherlands and Germany?" or "Has a new competitor joined?" These kinds of insights help managers make better decisions and react faster to the market. - Financial standardization with RGS
Linking an account schema to the Reference General Ledger Scheme is valuable, but too complex and time-consuming for many SMEs. AI can do this mapping automatically. This not only saves time, but also accelerates the adoption of standards and improves the quality of financial data. - Conversational ERP
In Uniconta , AI is already able to create, update or delete records based on instructions. Consider: "Create a better description and update the web description field." This seems small, but is a first step toward a fully conversational ERP, where employees will soon be able to say, "Rebook all invoices for items delivered" or "Create a top 10 list of my best-selling items."
Limitations anno now
The first limitation is memory. Today we can ask questions about single records or differences between two general ledger accounts, but not yet analyze an entire data set and make a reliable forecast. AI can also "overshare" or "overact"; it must remain controlled by a user, and autonomously running ERP processes is not yet desirable.
The second constraint is access to data. AI can only deliver value if it has access to the right data, and that requires a true ERP platform such as Uniconta. By platform, we don't just mean that there are modern APIs to connect AI or that standard AI agents are available, but mainly that companies can define their own agents and instructions. Want to expand to Amazon or Bol.com? Enter the foreign market? Better understand your competitors' pricing strategy? As with AI in general, it's all about being able to give instructions and get good answers back.
Uniconta is ideally suited for this purpose. The table structure is clear, translations can be controlled, and the data is contextually strong enough for AI to work with. Not every system offers that flexibility, and not every system can be simply transformed to make this possible.
Conclusion: more opportunities than threats
AI in ERP is inevitable. For SMEs, it means access to functionality previously only available to corporates. It means less repetitive administration and more room for insight, customer focus and strategic choices.
So the question is not whether AI will change your work, but what you as an entrepreneur will do with the extra space AI creates. Will you only save on costs and time? Or will you use the extra information to become more competitive? Because if you don't, your competitor will.
Want to discover how AI can enhance your Uniconta? Promentum Consulting will help you deploy AI agents and leverage your data. Contact us at: https://promentum-consulting.nl/contact/