The operational backbone of modern organisations is being reimagine

AI is usurping ERP and CRM systems as the core technology running business and government organisations.

Behind every successful organisation is a suite of core business systems, often enterprise resource planning, that is its core operational and historical record. These systems, by their nature, are vast repositories of information, with complex data structures and business logic that both underpins and drives core processes and functions. 

A recent trend has been to enable AI within these ERP systems to interrogate the data and shorten the time-to-answer for business leaders, finance controllers and analysts alike. While there is undoubtedly value in this approach, it isn't - and should not be - the endgame as far as core business system transformation is concerned.

AI's future is not constrained to what it can do in individual systems or functional silos. Rather, AI shines its brightest when used as a kind of connective tissue that bridges systems, as well as functional and data silos; and when it's not just finding answers, but taking actions as well.

This is why, as we head into 2026, it's clear that the next wave of AI innovation is not about smarter models. It's about smarter integration. 

This takes the form of connected intelligence - where AI agents interact across CRMs, ERPs, cloud services, quality engineering stacks and monitoring systems to execute complete workflows. 

This shift transforms AI from being an assistant to becoming an operational backbone - indeed, a completely new type of operational backbone for organisations. 

The sooner organisations and their leaders get across this evolution, and have a dedicated structure in place that they can use to enable connected intelligence, the faster they can start to realise the benefits of this new 'North Star' for AI adoption.

How we got here

The AI space has changed considerably even in just the past year. Twelve months ago, organisations were playing around with ChatGPT or copilot-style chatbots to determine what value they might provide. A year on, most organisations have 'gotten their hands dirty'; they have skin in the game and experience with what AI can and can't do - where it is generating value, and where are the capability gaps or opportunities. This knowledge and experience is completely reshaping how organisations think about AI.

Where AI was initially just used to answer questions, now AI is being used to ask the right questions, get answers, and even to take some actions on the organisation's behalf, with either no, partial or full human supervision.

AI can create value within a single business function or system. This is encouraging - but the big question, especially for leaders, is what more can AI do? This is driving leaders to wrap a more holistic lens around AI adoption - where it cuts across functional and data silos, and can start to solve whole-of-organisation problems and processes.

From an organisational perspective, when AI is connected to core business systems, it learns your goals, it understands your ecosystems, it is able to take initiative and solve key problems. It starts to become an operational go-to partner for people across the organisation. And, at this point, it starts to truly fulfil its potential as the new operational backbone of the organisation.

What connected intelligence looks like

Consider some examples of what this looks like in practice. A common early use case for a connected AI agent acting as an organisation's operational backbone is to execute an action using CRM, ERP and an email system such as Outlook.

For example, an AI agent may detect a customer issue in the CRM system. It can then direct the ERP system to process a refund for the customer, and then alert the customer service manager to the situation, highlighting its response and resolution, via a Teams message or an email.

Alternatively, as a salesperson, I could ask the AI agent to give me the top five clients who have got overdue invoices and then have the agent automatically schedule a meeting with all of them. Behind-the-scenes, the agent checks the CRM, analyses financial data coming from ERP, books some meetings using Outlook and sends all parties involved a calendar note and webconferencing dial-in 

This is just the beginning of what is possible with an AI agent viewing just three systems - CRM, ERP and Outlook. 

With AI acting as a connected intelligence overlay on core systems, business problems can be resolved end-to-end, seamlessly and with confidence.

So, how can organisations and leaders start to redirect their AI focus and energy towards creating and enabling this connected intelligence?

A discovery workshop run in collaboration with an experienced next-generation technology services provider is a good point of entry. It serves two key purposes. First, it is a way to kick off the conversation. By painting a picture about how to perceive AI - not based on what the technology can do today but on what it can do for the organisation in a two, three or five-year horizon - organisations and their leaders can understand what they are dealing with.

Then, by mapping the organisational context and pain points, the expected outcomes from connected intelligence and success metrics, a dedicated structure can be produced that enables the organisation to move forward with connected intelligence, creating a new AI-based operational backbone in the process.