Should the finance department know anything about AI?

Most people benefit from artificial intelligence (AI) every day without realising it.

AI is set to revolutionize sectors from transport to healthcare, media, and society at large. However, it's already impacting our lives without us being fully aware of it.

Today, you experience the value of AI when Google Maps plans your journey more efficiently than any traditional GPS, or when Spotify suggests new music you’ll love based on past preferences. Even casual interactions, like transforming your face into a character on a mobile app, are driven by the power of AI, once requiring massive computing resources.

Some may argue that the finance department finds AI boring, but it's crucial to recognize that AI-driven solutions are no longer science fiction—they’re happening now.

AI’s subtle differences

While Google’s route planner outshines competitors and Spotify delivers tailored music recommendations, the difference often comes down to better machine learning models or richer datasets. In the realm of intelligent automation, where we implement AI-driven accounts payable (AP) automation, the value of AI becomes clearer once customers grasp the core concept of artificial intelligence. They begin to see the gap between automation platforms that learn versus those based solely on rule-based systems.

READ MORE: AP Automation: Key terms you need to know

Just as Spotify learns your musical tastes, AP automation software can learn how to handle invoices based on past entries. Finance departments have long used rule-based automation for tasks like incoming invoice processing, but these systems require frequent updates and lack flexibility when it comes to handling invoice line items.

In contrast, AI-driven AP solutions learn from previous data, improving their accuracy over time. These systems apply learned behaviors to streamline tasks, such as automatically recognizing line items and categorizing expenses from similar suppliers. This enables a higher level of automation, leading to significant efficiency gains.

AI Brings More Than Just Efficiency

Beyond optimizing accounting processes, AI opens up new opportunities in data analysis. By automating accounting tasks like invoice capture at the line level, AI produces more accurate and consistent results than traditional methods. This allows finance teams to dive deeper into the data, uncovering trends and generating real-time reports.

READ MORE: Here’s why AI can make finance departments even more efficient

For example, AI enables finance departments to analyze spending across departments or projects, negotiate better supplier contracts, and identify shifts in purchasing patterns. Role-based dashboards make it easy to access and interpret this data, ensuring that the right insights are delivered to the right people in real-time.