Every ERP integration project eventually encounters the middleware question: use a connector platform like Boomi or MuleSoft, or integrate directly with the ERP's own APIs. For AI agents that need to act on live data in real time, the answer should almost always be the same.
What Middleware Actually Costs You
Connector platforms solve a real problem - they reduce the initial integration effort by abstracting away the ERP's API quirks. That abstraction comes at a price: another moving part between your agent and your data source, another failure mode to monitor, another vendor relationship to manage, and another component that may not handle an ERP upgrade gracefully.
"When SAP releases a Service Layer update, a direct API integration typically requires a config change. A middleware integration requires coordination across two vendor ecosystems simultaneously."
SAP Business One via Service Layer
SAP Business One's Service Layer exposes a comprehensive REST API that covers the full business object model - AP invoices, purchase orders, goods receipts, business partners, landed costs and more. Agents built on Service Layer make authenticated HTTP calls, work with JSON-formatted SAP objects and use the same session management model as SAP's own certified add-ons.
For operations that Service Layer doesn't expose cleanly - complex GRN-to-landed-cost mapping, for example - a direct HANA SQL connection via hdbcli provides a clean, supported alternative that SAP explicitly accommodates. This is not a workaround; it is a documented integration path.
Oracle Fusion Cloud
Oracle Fusion Cloud's REST API surface is extensive, covering financial management, supply chain, HCM and project management. For AI workloads, OCI GenAI Agents and AI Agent Studio provide a native intelligence layer that connects directly to Fusion data through Oracle's own managed service - removing the need for any external infrastructure to serve AI capabilities to Fusion users.
The Agent Architecture That Works
An AI agent that reads from and writes to your ERP through official APIs has a clean, documented, upgrade-safe integration surface. It authenticates through your existing identity infrastructure. It can be audited at the API call level. When the ERP updates, the integration team needs to review API changelog notes - not coordinate an emergency middleware patch.