AI is reshaping enterprise software at a pace that would have seemed impossible even five years ago. For beverage producers, this shift carries particular significance. The bev-alc industry has long operated with some of the most complex operational requirements of any manufacturing sector — from TTB compliance and batch genealogy to multi-category management and seasonal demand forecasting — and the tools available to manage those complexities are evolving rapidly.
At the center of that evolution is AI cloud ERP. Oracle NetSuite, the global leader in cloud ERP and the foundation on which Crafted ERP is built, has embedded AI capabilities directly into its platform, transforming how producers access data, make decisions and manage their entire operations. Nearly 45,000 companies worldwide run on NetSuite, and the introduction of AI-native tools represents the most significant leap in ERP functionality since the move to the cloud.
To understand what this shift means for beverage producers, I sat down with Jeremy King, CEO and co-founder of Doozy Solutions, the creators behind Crafted ERP. With a background in both CFO and COO roles, Jeremy has spent his career at the intersection of finance, operations and technology. Few people understand the practical implications of AI in ERP, for both the technology and the businesses running on it, as well as he does.
10 Questions on The Future of AI Cloud ERP: A Conversation With Jeremy King, CEO & Co-Founder of Doozy Solutions
How is AI fundamentally changing what ERP systems can do?
AI is changing ERP from a system of record into a system of intelligence, and that distinction matters enormously. Previous iterations of ERP innovation were primarily about consolidating data and automating workflows. Each leap forward, from on-premises to hosted and then from hosted to true cloud, made systems more accessible and connected. But the data still largely required human interpretation. AI changes that equation entirely.
Today, the system itself can analyze patterns, surface anomalies, generate forecasts, and answer complex operational questions in plain language. That’s not an incremental improvement. It’s a fundamentally different kind of tool. One that doesn’t just store what your business has done, but actively helps you understand what that data means and what to do next.
For businesses that embrace AI cloud ERP now, what competitive advantages does it unlock?
In any technology revolution, early adopters set the pace, and AI cloud ERP is no exception. Businesses that implement AI-powered systems today are building an operational advantage that compounds over time. The more data a system has, the smarter its recommendations become.
Companies running AI cloud ERP right now are building institutional intelligence based on real production data, actual demand cycles, and true cost structures, which means their forecasting, pricing and inventory decisions will only improve. The businesses that wait will find themselves starting from scratch, while their competitors already have a year or more of AI-informed intelligence under their belts.
What becomes possible is significant: real-time profitability analysis across channels, predictive inventory management, automated compliance and financial intelligence that previously required a team of analysts weeks to generate.
How does AI help ERP systems turn raw operational data into actionable insights?
Beverage producers often have more operational data than they know what to do with, and AI cloud ERP makes that data useful. The challenge has never been a lack of data. Most operations generate enormous amounts across production, inventory, sales and compliance. The challenge is extraction and interpretation, or getting the right information to the right person at the right time, in a format they can act on.
The AI capabilities in Crafted ERP + NetSuite make this possible through natural-language queries. A winemaker can ask, “Which 2022 varietals are aging more slowly than expected based on historical patterns?” and get an immediate answer. A CFO can ask, “What’s my true landed cost per case for my reserve rye whiskey when I factor in barrel aging, storage and labor?” and receive a precise figure. This is a fundamentally different relationship with your data — and it drives meaningfully better decisions.
Where is the line between AI replacing tasks and AI empowering people to do their jobs better?
The most valuable application of AI in ERP is augmentation, not replacement. Think of AI as a force multiplier. It should help eliminate work that drains your team’s time without adding judgment, such as manual data reconciliation, report generation, exception flagging and routine compliance calculations.
What AI frees people to do is more important — focus on decisions that require human expertise, industry knowledge and contextual judgment. A head brewer doesn’t need to spend time pulling inventory reports; they need time to make decisions based on those reports. A controller shouldn’t manually prepare TTB filings; they should review and sign off with confidence. AI takes care of the former, so your team can focus on the latter.
The goal is not fewer people. It’s better-utilized people.
The bev-alc industry faces a unique set of operational complexities that don’t exist in other industries. Where do you see AI having the greatest impact on those challenges specifically?
AI has the potential to transform each of the core operational challenges that make bev-alc uniquely complex. Compliance reporting is one of the most time-consuming and error-prone processes in the industry. AI-assisted report generation that flags potential errors or missing data before submission can dramatically reduce compliance risk and staff burden.
Batch genealogy and lot traceability, critical for both compliance and recall scenarios, become instantly accessible. Ask “Show me every bottle from Vineyard Block 7, Harvest Date 10/15/23” and get a complete chain of custody in seconds. Multi-license management across beverage categories becomes something a unified AI cloud ERP platform handles automatically, rather than something your team manually coordinates across disconnected systems.
The complexity of this industry is precisely why purpose-built AI tools matter so much here. A generic ERP doesn’t understand your compliance obligations or your production workflows the way Crafted ERP does.
How does AI-driven forecasting help producers stay ahead of emerging categories and shifting consumer trends instead of always reacting to them?
AI-driven forecasting enables producers to anticipate market shifts rather than scrambling to catch up. Producers who rely on gut instinct or last year’s numbers to inform production decisions are operating at a significant disadvantage in a market moving this quickly.
AI-powered demand forecasting inside Crafted ERP + NetSuite can analyze multiple years of historical data to generate production recommendations. For example, a winery can ask how much Rosé it should produce based on the past three years of sales. It can predict wine club churn, model seasonal tasting room inventory needs, and flag which SKUs are underperforming based on inventory turns and margin trends — before those underperforming SKUs become a cash flow problem. This gives operations leaders the confidence to make proactive decisions rather than reactive ones.
Profitability in beverage production is rarely straightforward. True costs are often buried across barrel aging, storage, labor and multiple sales channels. How does AI help producers gain a clear, real-time picture of where they’re actually making money?
AI makes true profitability visible in real time, answering questions that used to require hours of analysis across multiple systems. A question like “What’s my true landed cost per case of our West Coast IPA?” This previously required a controller pulling from production records, batch logs, and multiple spreadsheets. With Crafted ERP + NetSuite, these questions are answered instantly.
The same applies to channel profitability. A CFO could ask, “How does the taproom margin on our Hazy IPA compare to what we’re netting through distribution?” Breweries can now compare performance across their taproom, wholesale and retail channels, identify which SKUs are diluting overall margin, and make pricing adjustments with full visibility into cost structure.
This level of financial intelligence, previously available only to companies with dedicated finance teams, is now accessible to any operator running an AI-powered ERP.
Historically, ERP has been great at telling producers what has already happened. How does AI shift that from a rear-view mirror into a forward-looking tool?
AI transforms ERP from a system that describes the past into one that informs the future. Traditional reporting captures transactions: what was produced, what was sold, what was spent. That data is valuable, but it’s inherently backward-looking.
AI changes the system’s orientation. It can identify that tank utilization patterns suggest a capacity bottleneck during crush season before that bottleneck occurs. It can alert you when lot inventory levels indicate a vintage will sell out before the next release, triggering a production planning conversation weeks earlier than it would otherwise happen. It can model scenario outcomes, such as “If I adjust my 2025 Rosé production by 15%, what does that mean for my Q3 cash position?”, before any commitment is made. This is the shift from reactive operations to proactive strategy, and it’s one of the most significant things AI brings to an ERP platform.
Not every beverage company has a CFO or data analyst on staff. How does AI level the playing field, giving founders and operators access to the financial intelligence previously available only to larger enterprises with larger teams?
AI cloud ERP puts enterprise-grade financial intelligence in the hands of every operator, regardless of team size. For years, deep financial analysis was a function of headcount. If you had a controller, a data analyst and an FP&A team, you could model costs, forecast demand and benchmark channel performance. If you didn’t, you relied on instinct and simplified spreadsheets.
AI removes that dependency. Crafted ERP + NetSuite is designed to let founders and operators ask complex questions in plain language and receive answers that previously required specialized expertise to generate.
Think of it as having the analytical capability of an enterprise finance team accessible to any user, on any device, in real time. For smaller and mid-sized beverage producers, this is genuinely transformative. Not because it replaces human judgment, but because it informs it in ways that weren’t previously possible.
As conversations around AI cloud ERP grow and adoption increases, so do questions about data security and privacy. What should beverage producers understand about how their business data is used — and what safeguards should they expect from an AI-powered ERP platform?
Data security is a legitimate and critical consideration, and beverage producers running Crafted have enterprise-grade protections in place. Crafted ERP is built in Oracle NetSuite, which runs on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, one of the most rigorously maintained and secure cloud environments available.
NetSuite’s security architecture includes strong encryption, role-based access controls, multi-factor authentication, and token-based application authentication. Data processed by AI tools within the platform remains within your secure NetSuite environment. Meaning, your proprietary recipes, cost structures, customer data and compliance records are not shared or used to train external models.
When evaluating any AI-powered ERP platform, producers should ask specifically: Where is my data stored? Who has access to it? Is it used to train shared AI models? With Crafted and NetSuite, the answers are clear — your data is yours, protected by enterprise-grade infrastructure trusted by more than 45,000 organizations in 217 countries and territories.
Where Will AI Take ERP Next?
The timing of this conversation couldn’t be better. NetSuite recently introduced NetSuite Next, bringing conversational AI, natural-language actions and agent-driven workflows directly into the ERP suite.
Jeremy recently attended SuiteConnect New York, where NetSuite’s Founder and CTO Evan Goldberg framed what comes next as a once-in-a-generation shift in ERP — one where AI moves from a tool users query to a system that monitors, reasons and acts on their behalf. Jeremy says this is exactly the direction he’s been building toward.
“As someone who has watched ERP evolve from back-office accounting software to fully integrated cloud platforms, I can say without hesitation that what’s happening right now with AI is the most significant development I’ve seen in this industry,” Jeremy said. “We spent years helping beverage producers get their data into a single, unified system. Now AI is making that data actually work for them — giving producers access to insights that used to require a team of specialists to generate.”
For Jeremy, the most compelling part isn’t just what AI enables today. It’s the advantage that builds over time for early adopters.
“The businesses that adopt AI cloud ERP now are going to have a significant edge in two to three years,” he said. “They’ll have systems that understand their operations deeply, like seasonal patterns, cost structures and customer behavior. That institutional intelligence doesn’t develop overnight. The time to start building it is now.”
Jeremy’s perspective reflects both his financial background and his deep roots in the beverage industry. The business case for AI in ERP isn’t theoretical. For beverage producers looking to grow in an increasingly complex industry, it’s operational, measurable and undeniably urgent.
Is Your Data Ready to Deliver on the Promise of AI?
The potential of AI cloud ERP is only as strong as the data foundation beneath it. Clean, unified, well-structured data enables AI to generate accurate forecasts, reliable cost analyses and meaningful compliance automation. Without it, even the most sophisticated AI tools will produce unreliable results.
Before your business can take full advantage of what AI-powered ERP offers, it’s worth understanding where your data stands today.
Take our AI readiness assessment. Answer 7 quick questions to receive your AI-readiness score and get personalized recommendations for preparing your data for a successful implementation.
Crafted ERP, developed by Doozy Solutions, is the only purpose-built AI cloud ERP platform for beverage producers. Built in Oracle NetSuite, the world’s #1 cloud ERP platform, Crafted serves hundreds of breweries, wineries, distilleries and multi-category beverage producers across the United States and globally. Doozy Solutions is an Oracle NetSuite 5-Star Partner and official Solution Provider and Solution Developer. Contact us to learn more about our solutions.
