Twenty years ago, the advent of the Internet made many people concerned about their job security. But the rapid digitization that followed has spawned millions of carriers that didn’t exist before. By 2018, digital jobs accounted for her 7.7% of the UK economy.
History tends to repeat itself, and now there are many headlines every day about the latest “threat” posed by Silicon Valley. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Thanks in part to the new wave of freely available AI-powered chatbots, businesses and consumers alike have become aware of the vast capabilities of this technology.
While this has sparked a heated regulatory debate among some of the tech industry’s brightest minds, there is also optimism about how AI will revolutionize businesses. Automate monotonous and repetitive tasks, rather than worrying that it will replace everyone’s work (there are many examples of why it shouldn’t in technical or creative roles) It’s easy to see how it can make your job more enjoyable.
This is especially true in growing companies, where senior employees can be swamped with day-to-day operations rather than focus on strategy and other complex responsibilities.
For example, no one fumbling around the desk or under the car for a crumpled receipt when submitting an expense. Likewise, most CFOs don’t want to walk around their workstations or chase their staff through paperwork. A purpose-built expense management app allows employees to snap a photo of a receipt as soon as they receive it, and relevant data is automatically extracted to initiate a painless submission process.
An example of this is Barnsley Metropolit Borough Council, which recently used Concur Expense, a solution from SAP Concur, to automate their expense management processes. The city council wanted to “eliminate manual processes and create digital workflows.” [to] Provide residents with the highest possible level of service. Install Concur Expense to enable mobile teams (such as social workers) to enter expenses on the go via the app. AI-powered automation saves time in expense entry and reduces human error, cutting his average reimbursement time from six weeks to his three days.
The introduction of AI-powered T&E management software has also helped Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council focus on sustainability. This data will allow the company to better monitor its “gray fleet” (personal vehicles used for business purposes) and, in turn, its carbon footprint. Councils can now make more informed decisions about travel policies and better encourage employees to use public transportation.
David Robinson, Director of Services for the Council, said: “In order to provide people with the right work-life balance and to attract the best talent, we want to introduce a modern way of working. It’s a great example of how you can better support your employees’ digital initiatives by ensuring they don’t run out of resources.”
Of course, integrating AI into workplace software is nothing new. However, travel and expense management, a data-rich field that is ideally suited for machine learning, has been understudied. There is also demand. A Forrester Consulting study found that 59% of decision makers say employee dissatisfaction with expense processing has had a significant or very significant negative impact on the company as a whole.
Advanced algorithms can analyze and classify expense data by recognizing patterns and using natural language processing techniques. Low-risk requests are automatically approved, eliminating manual input and reducing errors. As these algorithms handle more expenses, they get better at knowing what is safe to approve without human intervention.
Automation reduces the chances of something slipping through. According to the survey, he 62% of finance leaders feel digital tools help them manage expenses more effectively across their organization. The research also shows that more than half of companies that have integrated travel and expense solutions have increased scalability and flexibility.
Additionally, AI can help protect your company from fraud by comparing expense data to predefined rules and benchmarks and flagging potential violations. It also helps organizations comply with all compliance and regulatory requirements, which is often an afterthought. From a business intelligence perspective, the technology can also highlight cost-saving opportunities and generate reports for decision makers from reconciled travel and expense data.
Employees at SAP Concur know that introducing AI and ML into financial processes can be intimidating. However, its software has been well tested and has been adopted by over 48,000 companies since the early 1990s.
Expense management has been optimized with AI and ML long before other areas of corporate finance. In fact, automating small, repetitive tasks like submitting and approving receipts with Concur Expense is a good starting point.
In the future, it is hoped that AI will completely transform expense management, resulting in greater efficiency for companies, realization of savings through improved financial management, and minimal environmental impact. . Widespread implementation of this is expected to increase GDP by 7% over the next decade.
To learn more about expense automation with SAP Concur, visit this website.
