Sage VP of Finance for Africa and Middle East regions, Jordaan Burger talks about Sage's AI technology offerings.
Artificial intelligence, once a futuristic concept, is a cornerstone of modern business operations at leading financial software provider Sage.
“Sage’s venture into AI began well before it became mainstream and before ChatGPT burst onto the scene two years ago, which means we are ahead of the curve. That is why we are starting to see more and more of this technology become real in our solutions,” explains Jordaan Burger, Sage VP of Finance for Africa and Middle East regions.
“This early adopter journey followed a methodical approach, much like the careful process businesses undertake when it comes to migrating their financial data to an AI-based system, and I believe that the AI revolution will stick with us more so than the internet itself,” he adds.
How finance is evolving
The world of finance evolved from a focus on digitalisation to moving to analysing that digitised data and then automating the analysis.
Now the spotlight is on using the output of automated analysis to gain insights that can help inform business decisions. This shift provides businesses with unparalleled operational efficiency, improved compliance, robust risk management, and more accurate financial forecasting.
“More and more companies are trying to transition to something more formal, especially when they need to be compliant with various regulations that affect their company,” says Jordaan.
The key benefit for businesses with Sage’s AI technologies is the seamless integration with cloud-based products, allowing a company to expand its AI offerings through single-source code applications. This enables streamlined updates, consistent performance and more efficient innovation.
“Sage can easily deploy AI-powered solutions to a broader customer base without needing to rewrite or adapt the code for each new product or service,” Jordaan points out.
Cutting-edge AI features
Sage Intacct is among the company’s flagship cloud-native products for medium-sized businesses. Among the solutions it offers is the ability to use machine learning to detect anomalies when the finance data is captured.
“The system is also intuitive in that it learns as the finance team inputs data and is able to correct,” says Jordaan.
“For example, when data has been inputted against certain criteria (a combination of supplier account, general ledger accounts and dimensions), the system will, from past learning, flag it for review if it detects an abnormality,’’ he adds. So, the information is far more accurate through what is known as the general ledger outlier detection.
Accounts Payable (AP) automation is another AI-driven feature, enabling these transactions to be automated from source documentation. Supplier invoices are fed into the AP automation system by a user or by setting up a dedicated e-mail address.
Jordaan points out that these invoices are then analysed with optical character recognition (OCR) technology before the AI model starts to prepare a draft supplier invoice for review by the user. Any changes to the draft supplier invoices created by the AI model are then fed back into the machine learning process, which is updated overnight in a way that allows the user to double-check them the next day.
“After a month of learning, accuracy will be around the 96 percent mark, saving users about 50 percent of the usual time spent capturing invoices and reducing the effort involved,” he says.
In general, AI automation allows for much greater scalability as enterprises grow over time and can be applied in various areas, such as customer service chatbots, data analysis, workflow optimisation, and robotic process automation (RPA), allowing businesses to improve efficiency, reduce errors, enhance decision-making, and free up human resources for more strategic activities.
Sage Intelligent Time is another solution that helps companies reduce time on routine tasks while ensuring that timesheets are more accurate.
“No one enjoys sitting on a Friday afternoon going through their calendars and doing timesheets. Not only does this save time, but generally increases billable time for service-orientated businesses,” Jordaan notes.
Another innovative leap is Sage’s Co-Pilot* which is leading SMBs and finance professionals into the generative AI era by automating routine tasks, offering key insights for growth, and enabling better decision-making and enhanced productivity. By integrating AI across Sage’s cloud-based solutions, businesses can achieve efficiency, productivity, and profitability through intelligent automation, predictive insights and personalised experiences.
*We look forward to the anticipated global roll-out of Sage Copilot in South Africa and are excited to start delivering the power of generative AI to the nation’s businesses so they can focus on what truly matters: growth and financial success,” Jordaan says.
Future predictions
Jordaan envisions a future, five years from now, where prompts may no longer be necessary. Instead, AI platforms will automatically predict and deliver the information finance professionals need. For example, notifying users when debtor days are increasing or when gross profit declines compared to previous periods, offering timely insights without being asked.
Jordaan would like to see businesses customise Sage solutions for bespoke business use uses, like dashboards. Automated dashboards follow a ‘build once, use many’ approach, enabling finance teams to give stakeholders self-service access to real-time information. This significantly reduces the need for continuous reporting by the finance team.
“By embracing AI technologies thoughtfully and strategically, the finance profession can enhance capabilities, deliver greater value to clients, and play an even more crucial role in guiding business decision-making,” he concludes.
