Australian enterprise resource planning (ERP) and analytics provider Pronto Software has announced an expanded artificial intelligence roadmap for Pronto Xi, incorporating generative, predictive and agentic AI capabilities directly into its ERP platform.
The initiative is being announced as the company marks its 50th year in business and enters a new phase of investment in AI, cloud infrastructure, product development and customer experience. According to Pronto Software, the new capabilities are designed to automate business processes, generate operational insights and allow users to interact with enterprise data through natural language.
Among the capabilities being introduced are predictive demand and fulfilment forecasting for inventory, voice-enabled business intelligence reporting and dashboards, machine learning predictions for service and maintenance, assisted purchase order approvals, automated inventory checks, stock recommendations and intelligent agents for B2B e-commerce.
Rather than relying on separate AI tools and integrations, Pronto Software says the capabilities are being embedded natively into Pronto Xi. The technology uses customers' existing operational data and follows the ERP platform's role-based permissions.
For Chad Gates, Managing Director of Pronto Software, the development reflects a broader change in the role of ERP systems within organisations.
“AI has moved from curiosity to expectation in an extraordinarily short time. Our approach is practical, secure and trusted. We are not implementing AI as a marketing exercise. Every capability we introduce is designed to solve a real problem for a real business user, reducing manual effort, improving a decision or eliminating a bottleneck,” he said.
From system of record to system of action
The company's roadmap places particular emphasis on agentic AI, which can move beyond providing information to initiating actions within defined workflows.
Pronto Software says its approach is intended to help ERP evolve from a traditional system of record into a platform capable of providing insights and taking action under established controls.
“We’re using AI to elevate workers, not replace them. ERP is moving from being a system of record to a system of insight and action, interpreting data, predicting outcomes and, in some cases, taking autonomous action with the right guardrails in place,” Gates said.
The company has previously announced a partnership with IBM to incorporate agentic AI capabilities into Pronto Xi through IBM watsonx. The agreement, announced in 2025, was intended to support the development and deployment of AI solutions capable of automating workflows and generating predictive insights through natural-language interaction.
Pronto Software's current AI roadmap also references the use of the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard that allows AI models to interact with data, tools and services. The company says MCP will support the coordination of its agentic AI architecture while maintaining security and governance controls.
Data and governance at the centre of AI strategy
The expansion also highlights the importance of enterprise data as AI capabilities become more closely integrated with ERP systems.
Pronto Software argues that the effectiveness of AI depends on access to clean, connected and governed operational data. The Pronto Xi platform already contains structured information across areas such as finance, supply chain and manufacturing, providing the data foundation for the company's AI capabilities.
The company has also invested in GPU computing infrastructure within Pronto Cloud to support its AI environment. According to Pronto Software, AI workloads are hosted on Pronto Cloud with access controls, encryption and data isolation, while customer data is not used to train shared or public models.
Pronto Software's AI offering includes natural-language interaction with live ERP data, workflow automation and predictive analysis. The company says its approach is intended to maintain human oversight while allowing AI to perform increasingly autonomous tasks within defined business processes.
The roadmap is expected to expand into financials, manufacturing, project management and industry-specific modules throughout 2026 and beyond.
50 years of Australian enterprise technology
The AI expansion coincides with Pronto Software's 50th anniversary. Founded in Melbourne in 1976, the company remains Australian-owned and employee-owned and says more than 1,500 organisations have used its technology.
The company traces its origins to Prometheus Software Developments and developed the Pronto Xi platform over several decades as enterprise software evolved from on-premises systems towards cloud computing, analytics and now AI-powered automation.
With the latest roadmap, Pronto Software is positioning AI as part of the next stage of that evolution, bringing predictive analytics, automation and agentic capabilities closer to the operational processes managed by the ERP itself.
