AI in Action: How Some Finance Teams Are Already Ahead of the Curve

Picture two finance teams: one is buried under expense reports, manually checking receipts, and spending hours on data entry. The other uses technology to analyze spending patterns, negotiate with vendors, and guide smarter business decisions. The difference isn’t budget or team size—it’s the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).

While much of the accounting profession is still debating AI’s future role, some finance teams are already using it to eliminate repetitive tasks and shift their focus from enforcing compliance to enabling better business outcomes through data-driven insights.

Stop Reviewing What Doesn’t Require Attention

The key shift begins with the mindset that finance teams don’t need to examine every single transaction.

Take the case of a global restaurant chain with more than 350 locations across several countries. The sheer transaction volume makes manual review impractical. A critical example is VAT compliance—receipts must be checked to separate tips and service charges from product items since they are treated differently for VAT purposes. Missing a service charge on a long receipt could lead to incorrect reimbursement claims.

AI now handles this by scanning receipts with keyword detection, flagging only those that require human oversight. For example:

• A receipt with a clearly separated tip is processed automatically.
• A long itemized bill with a hidden service charge is flagged for review.

This way, the finance team only spends time where it matters.

Turning Data Into Insights

When staff are freed from reviewing every transaction, they can focus on extracting insights from their own data. One finance team demonstrated how AI-powered analytics can transform expense management into business intelligence that drives efficiency and savings.

Using Emburse Analytics, spending data is combined to reveal trends across vendors, departments, and categories. In one case, the system uncovered scattered SaaS subscriptions being processed through expense reports rather than the company’s preferred procurement system.

Findings included:

• Multiple individual Adobe and DocuSign licenses hidden in expense reports.
• One enterprise license processed through accounts payable.

This fragmentation created risks: lack of visibility, security gaps, missed discounts, and duplicate purchases. Armed with these insights, the finance team consolidated software licenses into enterprise agreements, negotiated better pricing, and implemented stronger procurement protocols.

The outcome wasn’t only cost savings—it improved vendor relationships, enhanced security oversight, and streamlined software governance.

The Future: From Gatekeepers to Enablers

AI is rapidly reshaping the role of finance teams, moving them from post-transaction reviewers to strategic enablers.

The near future envisions a fully integrated AI system that draws on calendar data, location information, emails, and receipts to auto-populate expense reports with minimal employee effort. Employees would interact with AI to book business travel, receiving only policy-compliant options with automatic approval routing.

This approach doesn’t just catch compliance issues after they occur—it prevents violations by making compliance the easiest path for employees. Finance teams gain control and visibility, while employees save time.

Upcoming features include AI-powered hotel and car rental folio extraction, where the system reads detailed receipts and itemizes data automatically. This granular information lays the foundation for AI to make more advanced decisions in the future.

Getting Started: No Need to Wait

For organizations hesitant about adopting AI, the advice is clear: start now.

• Education first: Finance leaders and their teams should actively learn about AI through industry forums, peers, and technology leaders.
• Choose the right partners: Select vendors that are investing heavily in AI to make adoption easier and sustainable.
• Begin with repetitive tasks: Automate the most time-consuming processes first, but maintain human oversight.
• Involve staff directly: Input from those performing the day-to-day work is essential for successful implementation.

The Time to Act Is Now

While some continue debating AI’s future role in accounting, early adopters are already seeing tangible results. Finance teams embracing AI are positioning themselves as strategic business partners—guiding spending, improving compliance, and enabling growth through data insights.

The decision is no longer whether to adopt AI someday, but whether to lead this transformation or be forced to catch up later.

Technology is redefining what it means to be a finance professional. Those who seize the opportunity will find that AI doesn’t replace their role—it elevates it to new levels of strategic impact.