How Coupa is Using AI to Empower CFOs

With the rise and continued rise of AI, the way in which the procurement function operates is constantly transforming.

The technology is offering unprecedented chances to improve efficiencies, cost savings and strategic decision-making.

Now, Coupa has highlighted the impact AI is having on the day-to-day responsibilities of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), thus affecting procurement. 

Procurement adopting AI tools

In Coupa's second annual Strategic CFO Survey, Coupa interviewed 500 CFOs across North America and Europe to understand how finance leaders are currently using AI and how they'll invest in AI in the future.

More than a quarter (29%) of finance leaders currently use AI in procurement, making it the second-most common application area after accounts payable (AP) automation.

This is expected to rise, with almost a third (31%) of CFOs saying they are looking to invest in AI for procurement in the next six to 12 months.

Coupa highlights the following as ways AI can assist the CFOs and, in turn, procurement.

Detecting fraud and non-compliant behaviour

Leaders can use AI to reduce financial risks by automatically identifying and detecting suspicious activities and errors before they impact the bottom line and the company's reputation.

For instance, payment transactions that deviate from a user's normal spending pattern or transactions originating from unusual locations can be flagged for further investigation.

What's more, AI-driven algorithms can scan invoices and cross-reference against purchase orders and payment history. The tech can uncover duplicate invoices by finding patterns and similarities in invoice data that employees could miss or may overlook, and is also a tool to monitor transactions and communications for signs of non-compliance with financial regulations.

Automating contract analysis and data extraction

Manual reviewing and data entry can take up a lot of time and can be an area which is prone to human error. AI-driven solutions can use Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms to automatically extract critical financial data from contracts, including payment terms, obligations and compliance requirements.

Through this, finance teams can assess large volumes of contracts quickly and with higher accuracy. By bringing down manual intervention, AI can save time for more strategic work, reduce errors and improve the consistency and accuracy of financial reporting. This can all help to create more effective risk management.

Benchmarking against peers

AI can also be harnessed to create benchmarks, allowing businesses to review their performance against their peers, through analysing bigger datasets and KPIs. This real-time comparison highlights areas of underperformance or success and gives prescriptions to guide improvements in cost reduction, resource allocation and process efficiency.

AI also uncovers industry trends and best practices, helping finance teams proactively adapt strategies. In today's competitive environment, these insights are crucial for optimising margins, driving efficiency and identifying cost-saving opportunities.

Josh Waldron, VP Finance & Accounting at Scale AI, says: "The time to embrace AI is now. In today's dynamic market, those who leverage technology to gain foresight and optimise operations will stay ahead. It's not about replacing people with AI, but augmenting their capabilities and evolving alongside the technology."

AI only as good as the data it's trained on

While AI can prove vital in assisting businesses and offer a range of benefits to financial operations, not all AI should be treated the same. Having the right datasets is crucial because AI solutions are created to support smarter decisions that are only as good as the data they're built on.

Data scraped from the internet or based on surveys, collected for a few months or from a limited number of customers and run through public large language models (LLMs), will train AI-driven solutions that reflect these limitations.

Organisations need to understand the data organisations use and look for providers that use proprietary, secure and confidential data that have been safely and ethically sourced for years, from thousands of customers and millions of suppliers.

A Total Spend Management platform for all finance needs

In addition to offering the benefits already outlined, Coupa's AI Total Spend Management platform equips finance leaders with comprehensive data visibility and control by unifying the organisation's capabilities in supply chain, inventory management, contracts, procurement, invoicing and automated payments.

The easy-to-use platform boosts user adoption, enabling increased collaboration for smarter decisions across the entire team and organisation.

Through automation and AI, Coupa's platform guides finance leaders through uncertainties by leveraging real-time spend data and comparing an organisation's metrics against others to prescribe ways for the company to be more efficient, profitable and sustainable.

By leveraging AI trained on data from more than US$6tn of real-time global transactional spend, across a network of roughly 10 million buyers and suppliers for more than 15 years, Coupa's platform provides intelligent insights and recommendations to take the guesswork out of decisions for smarter operations.

By training Coupa's AI solutions on this proprietary 'community intelligence', Coupa provides precise, tailored KPIs and recommendations that account for each organisation's unique business rules, supplier dynamics, market factors and operational constraints.

This contextual awareness is pivotal in driving tangible, transformative value across the procure-to-pay cycle, enhancing margins and improving profitability.

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