Many companies invest in dashboards and AI applications first. Then it turns out the data behind them is wrong: outdated item data, inconsistent prices, duplicate master records. Even the best analysis stays wrong if the underlying data is wrong. And an AI answering on top of that data answers convincingly wrong.
The example: data sheets someone retypes
A typical case: suppliers send data sheets as PDFs. Someone reads them and transfers the values into the ERP by hand. That is time-consuming and error-prone, and it only happens when someone remembers. An AI agent takes over this work: it reads the data sheet, compares the values with the ERP and presents only the deviations. People decide instead of typing.
The division of labour is what matters. The AI extracts and compares; it does not write to the ERP unprompted. Every proposed change shows the old value, the new value and where it was found in the document. That keeps it traceable why a master record changed, and approval takes seconds rather than minutes.
Does this sound familiar?
If master data in your company is maintained by hand and nobody knows exactly how current it is, let us show you in a first conversation where maintenance can be automated.
Data quality is an ongoing process
Clean data does not come from a one-off project. New data keeps producing new errors. The most important first step is visibility: reports and quality KPIs make problems visible before they feed into decisions. Typical metrics are completeness of mandatory fields, duplicates, age of the last check and deviations between systems.
Automated maintenance then keeps the data right over time. This is the fourth foundation of our Data Platform: YourData. Cleaned. What a clean-up under time pressure looks like is shown in our article on a bank-grade group view.
Three takeaways
- Source first, analysis second. Every dashboard inherits the quality of the data it is built on.
- AI helps with clean-up. It spots patterns and deviations and relieves people of tedious work. The decision stays with people.
- Visibility first. A simple quality report is the fastest lever and makes progress measurable.