This March, SSON once again hosted the AP Automation Digital Summit, connecting the shared services industry with invaluable insights on leveraging technology within Accounts Payable (AP). This year, the summit highlighted topics such as the power of generative AI, best practices to meet new regulations, and the power of data analytics.
SSON was joined by Donald Bunch, Senior Manager & Automation Developer at Mars, Mark Brousseau, President of Brousseau & Associates, and Andrew Pery, Digital Transformation Expert & AI Ethics Evangelist from ABBYY.
In their session, “How a Global Food Enterprise Uses AI to Achieve Delicious Results”, the three discussed common challenges within AP, key use cases for AI within finance functions, and the power of automation.
Key Use-Cases For AI In Finance
Leveraging AI can reduce common problems within AP teams. Repetitive manual tasks, the elevated risk of fraud, and compliance issues can all be mitigated through AI-powered automation.
For example, when an invoice arrives within a shared service center, utilizing AI complements the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities teams have been using for the past decade. This allows organizations to extract more accurate data, such as automatically validating the information against Purchase Order and delivery documents.
This more thorough analysis enables organizations to identify and resolve invoice exceptions, as well as anomalous transactions that could indicate fraud. The predictive analysis of AI not only optimizes processes but mitigates risks within the company.
Another strong use case for AI within finance operations is managing the organization’s cash flow. AI solutions can provide insights into seasonal fluctuations and anticipated spending.
Mars’ Solution
At Mars, their AI project has been deployed in over 20 different markets across 14 languages. Donald argues that without AI, these deployments would have been on a much smaller scale.
In fact, Mars had previously deployed other solutions in some of these markets. However, these tools were “template-based” approaches that simply aimed to take off the most transactional work possible. Although this can increase efficiency, Donald maintains that Mars “could not have had the success that we currently have without AI…”
The organization leveraged a combination of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML). The NLP helps conduct a semantic analysis, to cater to different variations of AP terminology, standardizing documents from their wide range of vendors. Then, ML technology can learn to analyze different types of incoming documents, enabling more consistent information extraction.
For more insights on how organizations are leveraging AI within finance functions, this session is available on demand above. Alternatively, if you have more questions on how to optimize your finance functions, SSON’s webinar “5 Trends Shaping the Finance Function of 2024” will have the answers!