Epicor Launches Secure AI tools to Form “Cognitive ERP” Platform

This spring, artificial intelligence has been front-and-center across the agendas of most industry events, and Epicor Insights 2026—a gathering of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems users across what it calls the "make, move and sell" economy—was certainly no exception.

Under the theme of “Soar Higher, Together,” CEO Steve Murphy opened conference festivities the week of May 18th at the Gaylord Opryland resort and conference center in Nashville, Tenn. with a characterization of AI as paradoxically both powerful and frightening.

“The knowledge gap is real,” he began, “and many who write about AI do not understand it at technical level: chips are binary, there’s no creativity in AI whatsoever.”  And on the job security front, Murphy attributed the 100,000 layoffs that in past year that have been blamed on AI as an excuse for over-hiring. “There will be puts and takes,” he said, “but I believe AI will be a net creator of jobs.”

The forces of competition and the free market will continue, he added, and AI will continue to perform best when its mission is clear and source data is accurate. “And at Epicor our mission is clear as well: to provide you with confidence, clarity and speed for manufacturing and supply chain decisions.”

The Arrival of Cognitive ERP

That new functionality and structured approach to designing, building and deploying AI within the Epicor ERP system is called Epicor Prism, a network of vertical AI agents that execute work directly inside the ERP system. The company also introduced Epicor Lux, an agentic design system, as well as the Epicor Prism Agent Foundry, and a wave of Epicor Prism agents addressing specific, decision-critical enterprise workflows.

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“Our customers operate in complex supply chain environments where decisions must be executed quickly and with precision,” said Vaibhav Vohra, president and chief product and technology officer at Epicor. “Today, with Prism, we’re enabling intelligence that can execute inside the system of record, all while preserving the controls and accountability ERP was built for.”

At the core of this approach is Epicor Lux, Epicor’s agentic design system. More than a traditional UI framework, Lux is designed to help humans and AI agents communicate with ERP systems dynamically, while enforcing consistent user experience and security standards across all agents built with Epicor Prism.

As the control framework for agentic innovation, Lux ensures that every agent looks, feels and behaves like a trusted Epicor product. It is designed to help users understand context, confidence and potential consequences while keeping humans in the loop.

Building on Lux, Prism Agent Foundry provides a guided, self-service workspace that enables customers and partners to build custom vertical-specific agents directly within the Epicor platform. Prism Agent Foundry enables customers to use their data to create agents tailored to their specific business goals while supporting an increasingly open agentic ecosystem. Customers will be able to orchestrate workflows and visibility tooling across ERP while their agents operate safely within Epicor's enterprise governance guardrails.

AI Within the Constraints of ERP Governance

“Prism is becoming where you can build your own agents within the constraints of ERP governance,” explained Arturo Buzzalino, Epicor group vice president and chief innovation officer. “We’re entering the age of responsible intelligence,” Buzzalino added, “and Prism allows you to stand up new AI functionality within the secure ERP environment.”

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More than 50 different Prism agents already are available, ranging from a Freight Spend Agent that combines ERP and shipping data to identify carrier discrepancies, reconcile variances and prevent ongoing freight leakage to an MRP Log Agent that analyzes manufacturing resources planning (MRP) output logs, so users can better understand why MRP recommendations were made.

The Power of Community

Epicor also operates the largest opt‑in ERP dataset, for example, supporting inventory and transactions across roughly 40% of the estimated $54 billion U.S. independent wholesale automotive aftermarket. This breadth provides additional context into operational patterns, helping customers better understand activity across their business and support more informed decision-making.

Together, this combination of scale, embedded intelligence, and contextual insight provides the foundation needed to responsibly apply AI within complex supply chain workflows, helping customers move beyond isolated use cases and take action more consistently in their operations.

"We are where intent meets consequence," explained Buzzalino. "Our community is the advantage. We see the market move early, identifying patterns before any single ERP implementation."