MRPeasy has expanded its built-in AI assistant to help small and medium-sized manufacturers retrieve, analyse and visualise operational data using natural-language questions.
According to MRPeasy, the updated assistant, Mr. Peasy, allows users to ask questions about inventory, production, orders, suppliers and other business information directly within the manufacturing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.
MRPeasy noted the capability extends the assistant beyond software support, enabling it to generate tables, reports and charts based on data users are authorised to access. Users can also ask questions about items below critical stock levels, review open orders or summarise operational performance.
Mark Wong of New Zealand plastics manufacturer Acron Plastics said he had used the functionality to identify products sold at the same price over the previous 12 months, helping the business review pricing as costs increase.
“Going forward, I can see uses ranging from identifying products sold below required margins to flagging materials that need ordering and analysing operational performance,” Wong said.
MRPeasy said the feature is intended to make operational information more accessible to both experienced and occasional ERP users, including employees who may be unfamiliar with the software’s reporting tools and filters.
According to the company, access to customer data through the assistant is optional and disabled by default. When enabled by an account administrator, the assistant operates in read-only mode and follows existing user permissions. It cannot create, edit, delete or approve records.
The company said it had also introduced privacy safeguards, replacing names of customers, suppliers, products and employees with random identifiers before information is sent to the external AI service. The names are restored before the response is displayed.
“I like that customer names are masked before the data is processed, which helps us protect client confidentiality,” Wong said.
The assistant uses Google Gemini through a commercial API licence. MRPeasy said prompts and responses are not used to train Google’s models or develop its products under the applicable Gemini API terms.
According to MRPeasy, the update forms part of its broader effort to improve the usability of manufacturing ERP software and help small and medium-sized manufacturers access information from data they already collect.
