Is artificial Intelligence (AI) the path to a greater future or the downfall for humanity? That is yet to be determined.
One thing is certain, companies are rushing to find out how they can leverage AI for their companies and technology companies are rushing to brand themselves as leading the pack at embedding AI in their products. Recently, at Odoo partner days in Belgium, Fabien Pinckaers, the CEO of Odoo, released how Odoo is jumping ahead of the AI innovation curve with its upcoming release of version 19.
Embedded AI capabilities are not new for Odoo. For a long while, Odoo has used AI technology, more specifically Computer Vision, for document capture to automate processing PDFs and images for invoices, vendor bills, expenses, resumes, and bank statements. Furthermore, since version 17, there has been a ChatGPT integration for creating and rewriting content all across the platform.
However, the most recent announcements made by Fabien are particularly exciting. The first exciting features announced in Odoo 19 are AI fields and AI workflows.
For example, you will be able to define fields that auto-compute values based on a prompt.
Similarly, you can create a workflow to auto-assign a task or ticket to the appropriate representative.
Predictive analytics enable you purchase based on historic sales activities and stock directly from the PO.
Probably coolest of all, Odoo is releasing a new AI app that will allow you to define agents that are able to perform different tasks and help you throughout the system. You can provide the agent with company documents that it will then use to train the model so that the agent can be used throughout the system to answer questions and complete tasks. It also works with a variety of different LLM models so that you can choose the one of your choice.
Finally, Odoo recently released a Gemini bot that is trained on Odoo documentation to assist consultants and customers on how to properly setup and use Odoo.
As a result, Odoo support has 40% less tickets open which has led to better overall service and prioritization of issues that require a physical person to deal with.
Overall, Odoo is doing quite a lot to empower its users to leverage AI in their everyday lives making their work easier. This is crucial for companies that want to stay ahead of the curve technologically so that they can stay competitive in an ever-changing digital landscape.
You can find the entire Odoo R&D sneak peak for version 19 here:
New AI App Announced in Odoo 19