Aston Martin puts back-end AI to work while keeping agents off its website

Aston Martin is leveraging AI to enhance its operations while ensuring its highly personalized customer experience remains intact. The British luxury car manufacturer, which specializes in handcrafted, bespoke vehicles, wants to avoid investing in AI projects that don't yield profits or efficiency gains. Steve O'Connor, the Aston Martin's CIO, stated that they receive new AI features and capabilities almost as soon as they are released, a rarity in the typically lengthy transformational programs known in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) industry.

O'Connor and Max Fisher, Infor's director of product management, discussed AI scaling and governance at Infor Velocity Week. Aston Martin screens all AI ideas for their impact on the bottom line and operational efficiency before implementation. The company's operational use cases include back-end systems like configure-price-quote.

O'Connor emphasized that they are "AI delayers, not deniers," meaning they don't rush into AI investments without careful evaluation. Infor's research indicates that over half of businesses struggle to scale AI. To streamline AI adoption, Infor's AI Adoption Hub builds a tailored roadmap for each customer, turning use cases into weeks rather than quarters, as it used to take.

Aston Martin assigns a business owner for each AI agent to monitor its performance. The company also emphasizes fixing data and processes before integrating AI into ERP systems to maintain control over innovation and avoid potential value erosion.