Infor, an enterprise software company that provides industry-specific cloud ERP systems to sectors including manufacturing, distribution, food and beverage, and automotive, has published research showing that nearly half of businesses surveyed have not moved beyond early-stage AI deployments.
The study, called the Enterprise AI Adoption Impact Index, surveyed 1,000 business decision-makers at the C-suite, VP, director and department head level across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and France, covering retail and wholesale, food and beverage, industrial manufacturing, automotive, and logistics and distribution.
The central tension in the findings is between confidence and execution. Eighty percent of respondents said they believe their organisation has the internal capability to manage an AI implementation. Yet 49% reported that their AI efforts are still in early stages, running pilots only, paused or not yet started. When asked to identify the single greatest barrier to advancing their AI strategy, 36% cited data security, sovereignty, privacy or compliance concerns. Lack of internal talent to configure and maintain AI systems came second at 25%, and unclear business benefits or return on investment ranked third at 23%.
The data also points to trust issues with AI outputs and autonomous operations. Twenty-seven percent of respondents were unsure or disagreed that their organisation's data is mature and well-governed enough to support reliable AI. Thirty-one percent said they were uncomfortable with autonomous agents executing critical business processes. And on average, 49% of AI-generated insights and workflows still require manual review by a subject matter expert to check accuracy against industry regulations and processes.
When asked about priorities for long-term AI success, respondents ranked enhanced data security and sovereignty first at 37%, followed by the ability for AI to perform tasks autonomously at 32% and industry-specific AI use cases at 28%. Cost predictability also ranked high, with 87% of respondents saying fixed and predictable AI pricing is important when committing to long-term investment.
Alongside the research, Infor announced an expansion of its Velocity Suite product and the limited availability of an updated Agentic Orchestrator. The Velocity Suite, which packages AI tools with industry-specific configuration and managed services, now includes all of Infor's Industry AI Agents, a library of pre-built automations accessible from within Infor CloudSuites, and a year of complimentary managed services after go-live for each implemented solution. The company also introduced a Velocity Suite add-on for its Warehouse Management System that uses machine learning to optimise picking routes in warehouses. Infor cited customer results showing up to a 25% decrease in travel distance for warehouse workers using the pick path optimisation feature.
The Agentic Orchestrator, now entering limited availability with new capabilities, functions as an infrastructure layer that coordinates multiple AI agents to execute multi-step workflows rather than isolated tasks. The update includes supervisor agents that maintain context across tools and flag anomalies, interoperability through Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that allow AI models to access data across both Infor and non-Infor applications using an open standard, and observability features that give users visibility into how agents are making decisions.
"At Infor, agentic AI isn't a feature we bolted on. It's the culmination of two decades of deliberate foundation building. Our industry-specific platforms, multi-tenant architecture, and deep process intelligence give our agents a level of contextual precision that generic AI simply cannot replicate. A purchasing agent at a healthcare provider and one at a discrete manufacturer aren't the same agent, they shouldn't be," said Kevin Samuelson, CEO, Infor. "That specificity is what allows us to clearly articulate the ROI, and deliver on it. We're not selling automation for its own sake. We're selling measurable outcomes for the industries by meeting our customers where they are with AI and providing a clear, simple, and efficient path to where they want to be."
"It is very clear that Infor's clients are finding sustained economic value with their path to the agentic enterprise and they love the journey with Infor," said Mickey North Rizza, Group Vice-President, Enterprise Software for IDC.
"Since moving to Infor's multi-tenant cloud, we see improvements appear in the system without having to request them," said Zoaib Saifuddin, General Manager, IT from AMADA America. "Infor Agentic Orchestrator is the next step in that evolution: instead of our service engineers searching for answers, the intelligence comes to them."
"With Infor's AI driven Pick Path Optimization, we have elevated our warehouse operations to the next level. By intelligently leveraging real time data, we achieve 15% faster picking and 25% less travel distance. This leads to better utilization of our workforce and reduces our dependence on temporary staff," said Vera Janssens, Supply Chain Analyst at Coram International.
"With Infor Velocity Suite, we can grow rapidly without expanding resources at the same pace. Starting with customer order entry as our first automation, it provided a simple, practical path to AI, freeing our team to focus on higher-value customer engagement. We're excited to expand AI across more processes to drive even greater efficiency," said Jamarl Scace, Digital and IT Lead at Kattsafe.
