This isn’t even scary.

A few years ago, we published a whitepaper entitled “The Robots are Coming.” It garnered significant attention because, while it was about the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and their ability to sort through oceans of data, automate manual business processes, and instantly inform business decisions, the paper tapped into human’s fears of being replaced (or, you know, overtaken) by machines.  

Well, the robots are here.  

In the latest The Robots are Here whitepaper, we now explore the ubiquity of AI and ML in business. And the news is not only good, it’s getting even better. So no, not scary at all.  

Intelligent technology is not only fueling our smartphones and learning to drive our cars, it’s working behind the scenes in business – managing back-office practices in ways we could hardly have imagined just a handful of years ago.  

AI isn’t taking over our jobs, it’s taking on risk.  

Let’s say you have 10,000 employees. Odds are, you’ve got 10,000 different interpretations of your spending policies. Yet these people are out there every day, spending your business’s money. They’re traveling (or will be again soon), they’re racking up expenses, and while your policies keep things (mostly) in check, there are countless ways they’re inadvertently putting your company at risk. And this doesn’t even include your invoice processes and the multitude of opportunities for errors there.  

Now imagine if it was all manual and the only way to review it was to physically read it all.  

Okay, that is a pretty scary thought. Which is why it’s good to know certain solutions have AI and ML built right in and built to evolve right along with your company. Because the “smart robots” working for you don’t need to blink, they don’t take time off, and they don’t miss a thing. They just highlight what it is you need to know about your spending, so you can take action. And because they continuously improve themselves, it makes it easier to continuously improve your business.  

The robots don’t cheat.  

Sure, auditors might love their jobs (and we certainly don’t fault them for that), but no one – no one – is going to look at every single line item, examine every single transaction, and cross-check every single thing for mistakes and outright fraud. No one has that much time. Instead, they sample 10-20% of transactions and hope for the best. So when someone does commit fraud, the odds are in their favor. In fact, expense fraud typically goes on for two full years before it gets noticed.  

How much do you think that costs you?  

Auditing 100% of your expenses and invoices by hand just isn’t feasible. But with the right solution, intelligent technology can review it all in an instant. That way, your auditors and other AP types have time to solve the problems AI discovers, instead of randomly stumbling upon them themselves.  

You’re just not as good with taxes as they are.  

Sure, you might be a tax expert. One of the best, even. But with GST, HST, and VAT impacting you in different ways in different countries on different days, it’s impossible to keep up. Businesses often have entire teams to stay on top of changing rules and regulations, but billions still get left on the table (54% of unclaimed VAT adds up fast).  

And with this much money on the line, the last thing you want to do is slip up on your taxes.  

Intelligent technologies, when embedded with tax knowledge, can digitalize the entire compliance process, automatically checking transactions against local tax regulations to find significant reclaim opportunities. 

So yes, the robots are here. They’re may already be working for you. And the only thing that should make you nervous is how you ever got by without them. Get the details when you download the whitepaper.