Author: Wayne Schulz
Last week, I was working late on a stubborn Crystal Reports issue. The report wouldn’t render, so I opened ChatGPT Voice and talked through the problem while I worked.
It suggested what to check and, about five steps later, the report was running.
Then an uncomfortable thought occurred to me: My clients can do exactly the same thing.
Does that mean ChatGPT is about to replace ERP consultants? Probably not. But it does mean we need to get much clearer about where we still outperform it.
Routine break-fix work has supported consulting practices for years. “Why is this report blank?” “Where did this setting move?” “Why won’t this batch post?” These questions may once have justified a support call. Increasingly, clients can troubleshoot them by talking to an AI assistant that is available instantly, never gets impatient, and doesn’t bill by the hour.
That changes the value equation.
AI still doesn’t know which recent update broke an integration used by three of your clients. It doesn’t necessarily recognize that the “obvious” fix will create a month-end problem somewhere else. It hasn’t sat through a failed implementation, watched users invent workarounds, or learned which software vendors respond when production is down—and which ones disappear for a week.
That knowledge comes from experience, context, judgment, and relationships. It comes from being in the trenches.
But here’s the part we shouldn’t ignore: Many ERP consultants have built their value proposition around responsiveness. We return calls quickly. We answer emails after hours. We’re available when something breaks.
ChatGPT doesn’t sleep. Neither do Claude or Gemini.
The availability we once sold as a differentiator is becoming the baseline clients expect, whether it comes from a person or an AI assistant. Being responsive still matters, but responsiveness alone may no longer be enough.
The real question isn’t whether AI is coming for your job.
It’s whether the services you provide today quietly overlap with what an AI assistant can already do. If they do, what remains that is distinctly yours?
For most experienced ERP consultants, the answer is substantial: understanding the client’s business, anticipating downstream consequences, challenging a bad request, managing organizational change, and taking responsibility when the answer matters.
That’s the work to build around now.
AI may handle more of the troubleshooting. Our opportunity is to become more valuable for everything that happens before and after the easy answer.
