AI/ChatGPT Strategy for ERPNext

Thinking aloud, on how ERPNext can include some AI/ChatGPT features.

Apparently, Microsoft is already doing it with Navision/ Dynamics using Copilot, and Oracle and SAP are said to follow suit. It got me thinking, what can ERPNext do now?

A lot of people have wild imaginations about what AI can do on ERP, like creating invoices or reconciling bank statements with just a chat message. While that may be possible in the future, we need to think about how and where to start now.

Picture this: a chat window where users can type questions like

1- Which customer bought the most pens last month?

2- Can you compare the gross profit of the last 8 quarters?

3- How much we lost due to exchange rate variation last year?

5- How much price increase happened for Mangos last 5 years?

Basically, its all about generating an SQL statement and running it. I tried to create SQL for many such questions in ChatGPT and it worked. Many of them were wrong, But I’m sure it’ll get more accurate as time goes by, and in four or five years, it will achieve near perfection.

Now, if we are using ChatGPT API to generate SQL for complicated questions, run these SQL in Frappe framework, and get answer like a chat-reply, I think it will be a good beginning. ( ChatGPT API can again be used for converting data to human like answer )

After that we can think about adding data from internet for answers, for questions like

1- Please predict my sales considering inflation data from WTO ?

2- Can you suggest a forex strategy by analyzing data exchange rate variation across currencies?

Once we’ve accomplished these first two phases, we can start thinking about even more ambitious AI tasks.

I’m confident that anyone who takes the initiative to kickstart this project will be able to secure sponsors and funding. In fact, many of us in this forum - including myself - would love to sponsor it!

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Many use cases … Even automate standard business proccesses …
Really interesting this video:

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This is really interesting. Can the owner provide some inputs on how this was done?

There’s this: Introducing DoppioBot Template: Build AI Chatbot Experiences for Frappe

Also, somewhat related, on the analytics side (WIP): feat: Insights Copilot

The Insights Copilot might be the most specific to the scenarios given in the opening message, but it appears to have stalled ATM…

Here is one more use case!

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Even though I’m not a programmer and just started to look into using AI, I suggest having a more open approach. Not every business will use ChatGPT for everything, especially if company internal data might be transmitted to an external service.

Due to data privacy laws as well as data protection regulations, some businesses might need to run AI tools locally within their own network. Or they just want to keep things in-house.

Also, I would love to be able to set the AI API URL myself instead of having it hard-coded within ERPNext. Overwriting a default API URL would be just fine too.

Though, I’d love to see an open approach to the topic, instead of binding it to ChatGPT and/or other proprietary solutions. The same is true for other ERPNext integrations, the more open they are, the better it will suit new users of the system. I know this might be a nightmare from a programming perspective.

Thanks for a wonderful ERP solution!

Good to see this. I would like to add that now we can use WhatsApp Flows and Forms on WhatsApp itself, so structured data may come from WhatsApp itself. See this WhatsApp Flows | WhatsApp Business

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How to install these in erpnext???