Dashboards provide a quick overview of company performance. However, as your business operations become more complex, it becomes increasingly clear that a dashboard alone is no longer a sufficient source of insight.
Here are 6 reasons why companies using SAP Business One need AI as a companion to their dashboards to generate deeper and more meaningful analysis.
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Dashboards Show the Numbers, AI Explains the Reasons
A dashboard only answers what happened, but executives need to know why it happened.
Example: The dashboard shows a decline in delivery rate.
However, AI can explain the causes: certain sales orders are not completed, stock has run out, or delivery orders are delayed. -
Dashboards Cannot Detect Hidden Anomalies
A dashboard only displays pre-mapped data, whereas AI reads the entire dataset and detects unusual patterns such as:
- Qty delivered > qty ordered
- Sales order closed with open qty
- Delivery order without sales order
- Data discrepancies between modules
These are insights that a dashboard alone cannot provide.
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Dashboards Depend on Pre-Prepared Data
If the query/dashboard is wrong, the insight will also be wrong.
AI reads raw reports and detects issues even when the query fails to capture them. -
Dashboards Cannot Answer Natural-Language Questions
When executives want to ask questions such as:
- What is the biggest issue this week?
- Which transactions should I review?
- What looks off this month?
A dashboard cannot answer these questions.
AI can answer them in natural human language.
For a hands-on example, see the following main article:
👉 AI Insight for SAP Business One: A Smarter Way to Read Reports -
Dashboards Do Not Perform Cross-Analysis Across Documents
Examples:
- SO ↔ DO
- DO ↔ GRPO
- Sales ↔ Inventory
- AR ↔ Delivery
AI reads reports holistically across documents.
Dashboards typically focus on a single module per chart. -
Dashboards Display Data; AI Delivers Insights
A dashboard is a visual tool.
AI is an analytical tool.
Combining both provides:- ✔ Quick visualization
- ✔ Deep insights
- ✔ Predictive analysis
- ✔ Automatic anomaly detection
This enables C-level leaders to make decisions with greater confidence.
Conclusion
Dashboards are important, but they are not enough to capture anomalies, understand data patterns, and uncover hidden issues.
Integrating AI with SAP Business One provides:
- Automatic analysis
- Insights that are easy to understand
- Real-time anomaly detection
- Faster and more accurate decisions
For a full demo of how AI can automatically read SAP B1 reports and dashboards, please contact us.
