Separating “AI washing” from true artificial intelligence is turning into a full-time job for tech analysts. How do Infor Inc.’s new enterprise AI goods weigh against its marketing?

“There’s a lot of substance behind what they’re doing at Infor that sets them apart from their competitors in the [enterprise resource planning] space,” said James Kobielus (@jameskobielus) (pictured, left), Wikibon.com AI expert and co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio.

Kobielus unpacked the announcements at Inforum 2017 in New York today with co-hosts Dave Vellante (@dvellante) (pictured, right) and Rebecca Knight (@knightrm) (pictured, center). (* Disclosure below.)

Although some of its competitors have deeper pockets, Infor is making up for it in muscle, according to Kobielus. Infor’s plan to incorporate AI across its portfolio is more comprehensive than what SAP SE, Oracle Corp. or Microsoft Corp. have done thus far, he stated.

One such software Infor is baking into its business applications is a conversational AI robot for enterprises called Coleman. The acquisition of business intelligence tech company Birst Inc. should spread AI further over Infor’s suite of apps.

“The Birst acquisition gives them a really good team of people who really know analytics and know how to drive it into transactional environments,” Kobielus said.

AI is the new UI, but where’s the demo?

But if Coleman’s conversational user interface is so simple and powerful, why didn’t Infor give us a taste at the keynote? Unlike ServiceNow Inc. at its conference last May, Infor did not show attendees it’s AI interface in action, Vellante noted.

“Infor said, ‘This is ready to be tested and downloaded,’ but they didn’t show any demos,” Vellante said.

The reason may be that, even with AI, a pretty interface can only reduce the bulky complexities of ERP so much. “When you talk to the customers, they say, ‘It’s a little tough to implement sometimes.’ So it’s still ERP, and ERP is complicated,” Vellante said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Inforum 2017 event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Inforum 2017. Neither Infor Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE