Artificial intelligence has moved quickly from hype to reality, transforming how organizations uncover insights, automate work, and make critical business decisions. At INFOCUS 2025, Steve Kassay, Director of Artificial Intelligence at GSI, explored what AI really means for JD Edwards customers and the broader enterprise landscape, including how GSI’s ElevateAI meets the needs discussed. His session, AI That Speaks Business: How ElevateAI is Powering Smarter, Faster Decisions Across the Enterprise, highlighted both the opportunities and challenges organizations face as they adopt AI.
Separating AI Hype from Practical Value
Kassay drew a parallel between today’s AI hype and earlier technology waves—cloud, social media, even the early internet. Each brought promises of transformation, but only when paired with governance, strategy, and real business alignment did those technologies deliver measurable impact. AI is no different. It’s powerful, but without direction, it risks producing irrelevant or inaccurate results.
Why Many AI Projects Struggle
According to Kassay, most failed AI initiatives share the same root causes:
- Lack of governance: Without monitoring, AI outputs drift from business goals.
- Complex starting points: Companies attempt to solve the hardest problems first instead of beginning with small, automatable tasks.
- No success metrics: Teams launch pilots without defining what success looks like or how it will be measured.
For JD Edwards customers, this can mean dashboards that don’t align with operational needs, or AI tools producing answers that sound convincing but don’t reflect the actual data.
A New Way of Working with Data
Traditional business intelligence (BI) tools like Power BI or standard JDE reporting provide answers when you know what you’re looking for. AI, however, can surface patterns, anomalies, and opportunities you might not have thought to ask about. Instead of combing through thousands of lines of JDE logs, AI can proactively flag errors, highlight unusual trends, or suggest opportunities for efficiency.
This shift moves decision-making from reactive to proactive. Business leaders no longer need to wait for IT-generated reports—they can interact directly with their data in natural language, gaining insights instantly.
The Role of Agents and MCP
One of the biggest advancements discussed was the move toward agentic AI—where AI agents perform specific tasks reliably, such as forecasting or pulling SQL queries. Combined with the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enterprises can create a framework where AI knows which tool to use for which task. For JD Edwards, that means AI can interact with ERP data more accurately and consistently, while also connecting with CRM, HR, or other enterprise systems.
Building AI Success in Your Business
Kassay emphasized that adopting AI isn’t just about plugging in a new tool. Success requires:
- Clean, well-structured data so AI can deliver accurate insights.
- Governance and monitoring to keep results aligned with business needs.
- Defined outcomes—knowing which problems you want AI to help solve.
- Incremental steps—starting with automations and gradually expanding to predictive and prescriptive analytics.
For JD Edwards users, this approach means using AI first for proactive alerts and error detection, then expanding into scenario modeling, process optimization, and long-term forecasting.
The Bottom Line
AI has the potential to dramatically increase efficiency, reduce manual workloads, and help organizations make smarter, faster decisions. But its value isn’t in replacing ERP systems like JD Edwards—it’s in extending their power. By layering AI on top of existing enterprise data, businesses can get more from their current systems, preserve investments, and prepare for a future where AI-driven decision-making is the norm.
As Kassay noted, AI is no longer optional. The companies that figure out how to align it with business goals today will be the ones leading their industries tomorrow.
Want more?
Explore more content and resources to help you get the most from your JD Edwards investment:
- Be sure to check out the INFOCUS 2025 Event Hub (coming soon) for presentation slides – available exclusively to Quest members.
- Explore the AI & Machine Learning in JD Edwards Strategic Content Center for more Quest-exclusive resources.
- Visit the Quest Learn Library for blogs, how-to demos, and on-demand sessions.
- Connect with peers in one of our Quest JD Edwards Community User Groups to swap stories, ask questions, and share tips with other users facing the same challenges.
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