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!