Meet Prism EDI Agent: A New Way to Understand EDI Activity in Kinetic

Most manufacturers don't spend much time thinking about EDI when everything is working correctly. But behind nearly every order, shipment, invoice, and acknowledgment is a steady flow of EDI transactions helping to keep the business moving.

As Jon Beattie, Senior Product Manager for Epicor EDI, explains,  EDI is like the backbone for running your business, because it's used to get information from your partners and send information back to them. Orders, invoices, shipments, acknowledgments — all of those business-critical documents typically flow through EDI."

The key question isn’t whether EDI is important; rather, it’s can you use EDI to  understand what's happening when setbacks arise: A delayed shipment. A failed transaction. An unexpected exception.

The Visibility Challenge

When an EDI transaction doesn't behave as expected, getting to the root cause can take time.

The information users need often lives across multiple systems, making it difficult to quickly determine whether a document was received, processed successfully, or requires attention.

According to Beattie, "You might have to go into EDI products or EDI systems to find out how your data is flowing, whether there are issues, or maybe to troubleshoot those issues. A lot of it's the visibility, transparency, and hopping across systems."

For teams that don't work in EDI every day, that process can create delays and make it harder to get the answers they need.

The Opportunity to Do Something Different

As interest in AI grew, customers weren't simply asking for another AI tool. They were asking how AI could help reduce complexity.

One theme came up repeatedly.

>As Beattie recalls hearing from customers, "How can I stay within my system? My primary system of work is usually my ERP. Can we make it so that I can do more of my activities in there?"

That question helped shape the direction of where we went next .

Meet Prism EDI Agent

Prism EDI Agent extends Epicor Prism into EDI workflows within Kinetic, giving users a new way to interact with EDI information through natural-language conversations.

Instead of manually searching screens, transaction details, and EDI records, users can ask questions and receive contextual answers based on connected ERP and Epicor EDI data.

For example, users can ask:

• Has this EDI document been processed successfully?
• Are there any transactions requiring action?
• Why is this document in error?
• What activity have we seen from a specific trading partner?
• Have transaction volumes increased or decreased over the last month?

Beyond document status and exceptions, users can also explore broader operational activity, including trading partner trends and transaction patterns over time.

Consider an operations manager investigating a delayed order. They know the issue may be connected to an EDI transaction, but they don't spend their day working in EDI systems.

Instead of tracking down transaction details or relying on an EDI specialist to investigate, they can ask questions about the document, review its status, identify any exceptions, and see supporting context from connected ERP and EDI data.

The goal isn't to replace EDI expertise. It's to make EDI information more accessible when business users need answers.

Responses can be reviewed in tables, copied into other applications, or exported when needed.

Ultimately, Prism EDI Agent is designed to help users get answers faster so they can focus on taking action.

The product was also shaped by feedback from teams that work closely with customers every day. According to Beattie, the people who help customers onboard, troubleshoot issues, and answer questions helped identify the types of EDI information users need most often. Those insights helped inform many of the capabilities available at launch.

Bringing ERP and EDI Together

Prism EDI Agent is designed to close the gap between two systems that have traditionally operated side by side.

When users need to understand why a transaction failed, whether a document was processed successfully, or what action needs to be taken next, the answers often draw from both ERP and EDI data, separately.

According to Beattie, bringing those sources of information together is where the product delivers the most value.

"That's where the biggest power comes from. For EDI, you're pulling that into ERP so you can work there, but they have been separate. So you can really maximize the knowledge that we have about ERP and the knowledge that we have about EDI in one space."

By combining connected ERP and Epicor EDI data within Kinetic, Prism EDI Agent gives users a way to explore EDI activity through natural-language questions while benefiting from the context available across both systems.

"That's where the biggest power comes from... you can really maximize the knowledge that we have about ERP and the knowledge that we have about EDI in one space."

Jon Beattie, Senior Product Manager  | Epicor EDI

Making EDI More Accessible

While EDI specialists may spend their days working with transaction data, many people who depend on EDI information do not.

Operations teams, customer service representatives, planners, finance teams, and managers often need answers without having deep expertise in EDI systems.

That reality influenced how Prism EDI Agent was designed.

By allowing users to ask questions in natural language, Prism EDI Agent helps make EDI information more accessible across the organization. Teams can spend less time interpreting transaction details and more time focusing on the decisions and actions that move the business forward.

Built for Confidence and Transparency

As organizations explore AI for operational workflows, questions about trust, accuracy, and data security naturally follow.

• Where does the information come from?
• How is company data being used?
• Can users understand the basis for an answer?

According to Beattie, those conversations were a consistent part of customer discussions throughout development.

Prism EDI Agent follows the same principles as Epicor Prism, helping customers interact with their business data while maintaining transparency around the information being presented. Responses include supporting context and data timing, allowing users to better understand how answers were generated.

That visibility is particularly important when users are making decisions based on business-critical operational information.

Building a Foundation for What's Next

The June 9 release introduces a new way for users to interact with EDI information inside Kinetic, and Beattie views it as an important foundation for future AI capabilities within Epicor EDI.

Today, the focus is on helping users ask questions about EDI activity and receive contextual answers based on connected ERP and EDI data.

Looking ahead, Epicor sees opportunities to expand how users interact with EDI information, helping organizations gain deeper visibility into transaction activity, exceptions, trends, and operational performance.

The June 9 release establishes the foundation for that broader vision.

The Bottom Line

EDI remains one of the most important data streams inside manufacturing and supply chain operations. Yet understanding transaction status, errors, and exceptions often requires navigating multiple tools, screens, and records.

Prism EDI Agent brings AI-guided interaction directly into Kinetic, allowing users to ask questions about EDI activity using natural language, receiving contextual answers based on connected ERP and Epicor EDI data.

For organizations that rely on Epicor EDI and Kinetic every day, that means spending less time searching for information and more time acting on it.

EDI isn't getting simpler. Transaction volumes continue to grow, trading partner requirements continue to evolve, and more teams rely on EDI data to do their jobs effectively.

Prism EDI Agent was designed to help more people understand and act on EDI information without needing deep EDI expertise.

Or, as Beattie says, "We want to enable more and more people to approach EDI because it can feel complex. But it's approachable."

For organizations looking to make EDI information more accessible across teams, Prism EDI Agent represents a new way to turn transaction data into actionable insight, helping more people understand what's happening and respond with confidence