Photo provided to Channel Insider by Sage
This year’s annual conference hosted by financial management vendor Sage offered attendees a glimpse into a rapidly evolving landscape where artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming integral to business processes. Channel Insider spoke with key product and engineering executives to understand how Sage is embracing AI technology while remaining steadfast in its mission and core values. Let’s dive into the various facets of this transformation and how it is poised to shape the user experience.
AI Enhancements Across Sage’s Portfolio
At the conference, Sage unveiled multiple product updates, emphasizing its commitment to integrating AI capabilities across its portfolio of offerings. One of the standout highlights was the introduction of Sage Copilot, now available for users of Sage X3. This tool aims to optimize financial processes, making them more efficient and user-friendly.
In a groundbreaking move, Sage also announced a collaboration with CPA.com, a subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). This partnership aims to leverage select AICPA resources to enhance Sage Copilot’s training, ensuring users benefit from accurate, context-rich insights while navigating complex financial tasks.
Moreover, the company is charting a careful course for developing agentic AI capabilities, which promise a higher level of automation and decision-making support for users. However, executives stressed the importance of a measured approach to ensure that these capabilities align with customer needs and maintain trustworthiness and transparency.
“As the pace of change accelerates, we recognize it can be overwhelming for our customers,” noted Aravinda Gollapudi, SVP of medium platform and engineering. “Our AI capabilities are built to create value and instill trust, prioritizing a thoughtful rollout.”
Sage Intacct Enhancements: A Focus on Customer Needs
The roadmap for Sage Intacct reflects recent research by Edelman, which revealed a degree of skepticism among financial professionals regarding AI-enabled solutions. In response, Sage has committed to delivering capabilities that specifically address these concerns:
- Close Workspace: A centralized hub within Sage Copilot designed to track customized close tasks, employing analytics to identify bottlenecks and provide actionable suggestions.
- Enhanced AP Automation: An extension of Sage Intacct’s embedded AI capabilities across the accounts payable workflow, from purchasing to payments, aimed at substantially reducing processing time.
- Continuous Assurance: Future enhancements set to transform the close process by orchestrating tasks and automating data entry, enhancing transparency throughout the reporting cycle.
- Cash Flow Prediction & Optimization: Introducing predictive cash forecasting based on customer payment behaviors to empower finance leaders managing cash flow.
- Developer Tools for Sage Copilot: New tools to extend Sage Copilot’s functionality, enabling businesses to craft customized, AI-driven workflows tailored to their unique needs.
With excitement already bubbling among customers and partners, Gollapudi anticipates rapid adoption of these capabilities in the months ahead, particularly those related to agentic AI.
Establishing Partnerships for Future Growth
Sage’s commitment to building an adaptable AI ecosystem is reinforced by its strategic collaboration with AWS. This partnership underscores the company’s approach to ensuring that its AI capabilities are not locked into a single model. Amaya Souarez, EVP of cloud services and operations, articulated this philosophy, stating, “By maintaining LLM neutrality, we can ensure that we’re always leveraging the best available technologies, providing flexibility to our customers.”
The ongoing collaboration with AWS facilitates better opportunities for channel partners, integrating Sage Copilot capabilities within AWS configurations for various client solutions. “We have consistent dialogues with AWS about how we can include partners in our strategic conversations to enhance their offerings,” noted Souarez.
Prioritizing Trust and Security
The theme of trust is a recurring motif in discussions with Sage executives. As the company evolves its offerings, it prioritizes a commitment to responsible and secure AI practices. Gollapudi emphasizes that customer consent is paramount: “We want our customers to remain in control of how and when they utilize AI in their products. Honesty, transparency, and authenticity are at the core of our rollout strategy.”
This emphasis on trust does not equate to slower development. Souarez highlighted that the company operates with a sense of urgency: “While we are deliberate in our development process, it’s a responsibility we take seriously. We aim to trust our partners and customers with our rapid innovation.”
Sage’s approach involves continuous engagement with a diverse network of channel partners to drive mutually beneficial growth. This collaborative environment aims to ensure customers can confidently embrace the new AI-driven capabilities emerging from Sage’s innovations.