Episode 101: How to unlock enterprise value with ERP and AI: What works and what doesn’t?

How do ERP and AI translate into business value? BCG’s Sharonee Dutta and Koushik Ray join SAP to discuss process redesign, AI-first ERP implementation, and the myths that can hold transformation back.

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How can organizations turn ERP and AI into measurable business value? It starts by identifying where AI can change how the business works, from everyday decisions to end-to-end processes.

In Episode 101 of The Future of ERP Podcast, SAP hosts Eric Annino and Matt Emmert welcome BCG's Sharonee Dutta and Koushik Ray to discuss what works, what falls short, and how organizations can move beyond AI pilots. They explore how companies can identify high-value opportunities, redesign business processes, and align people and technology around meaningful outcomes.

Sharonee shares how an industrial client identified an estimated £55 million in annual value potential across maintenance, procurement, and capital projects. Koushik explains how AI is reshaping ERP implementation through coordinated agents and human oversight, including why faster individual tasks do not always translate into equally dramatic gains across an entire program.

The discussion also explores AI's role in finance and challenges common assumptions about data quality, cloud ERP, AI readiness, and standardization. Throughout the conversation, the guests return to a practical question: What needs to change in the way a business operates for ERP and AI to deliver lasting value?

In this episode, you’ll learn 

·      Why process and operating model redesign matter when combining ERP and AI.

·      How to prioritize a few AI opportunities around business KPIs and economic value.

·      What changes when AI drafts implementation artifacts and people validate them.

·      Why task-level implementation gains differ from program-wide acceleration.

·      How AI adoption differs between finance operations and financial planning and analysis.

·      Where standardization makes sense and where customization may support differentiation.

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Guest 1: Sharonee Dutta

Sharonee Dutta is Managing Director at BCG Platinion and BCG CTO for ERP. She specializes in enterprise solutions that enable business transformation across finance, procurement, and supply chain, and has led large-scale transformation programs for Fortune 500 organizations.

Guest 2: Koushik Ray

Koushik Ray is a Partner and Director at BCG and a member of its NextGen ERP global leadership team. He specializes in designing large-scale ERP transformation programs and brings more than two decades of experience delivering SAP-enabled business transformation initiatives.

Host 1: Eric Annino, Product Marketing, SAP

With more than a decade of SAP experience in marketing and communications, Eric specializes in translating complex topics (such as ERP) into clear, compelling insights, helping audiences understand the relevance in today’s business landscape.

Host 2: Matt Emmert, Product Marketing, SAP 

Matt leads the go-to-market content strategy for Cloud ERP in SAP Product Marketing.  He is passionate about connecting SAP’s vision to the rubber-meets-the road value that customers can realize today.  He has been central to SAP’s public cloud ERP go-to-market activities since 2016 with over 10 years of customer-facing solution advisory experience and a deep understanding of SAP’s applications.  In his time at SAP, Matt has helped drive the rapid adoption of SAP Cloud ERP and has worked with hundreds of SAP customers to discover and realize the value of the SAP solution portfolio.