Leveraging AI in Finance: The Possibilities of SAP BTP

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a game-changer for businesses across industries and various business functions, and finance teams are no exception. It was top of mind for all of us at the SAP Sapphire conference earlier this year.

Our team presented on the growing role of AI in finance and how we are helping organizations harness its potential.

The Rise of AI in Finance:

AI has generated significant excitement among finance professionals. Our recent survey of business leaders found that 80% recognize generative AI as important to gaining competitive advantage and market share, with 52% of leaders measuring GenAI-related ROI through revenue generation, followed by improved decision making (44%) and productivity (40%). Leaders also are heavily investing in upskilling their existing workforce, with training and capability building initiatives reaching 59% of those surveyed.

Finance teams, with their abundance of structured data, have emerged as trendsetters in adopting AI technologies.

SAP has integrated AI into its products and by activating and training these AI engines, organizations can automate and enhance various finance processes. For example, the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) can leverage AI capabilities for document entity recognition, document classification, and document information extraction, giving ?finance teams better control and enabling them to improve accuracy and enhance their decision-making processes. These use cases are not just theoretical possibilities but are already being implemented successfully for KPMG's clients.

Use Cases and Benefits:

·?????? Variance Analysis and Commentary: AI can play a crucial role in analyzing variances in financial data and generating insightful commentary. By using AI-powered tools, finance teams can quickly identify deviations, understand their root causes, and provide meaningful explanations. This enables finance professionals to have more informed discussions with senior leadership and make data-driven decisions. The combination of AI and finance expertise empowers organizations to gain deeper insights into their financial performance and take proactive measures to drive improvement.

·?????? GR/IR (Goods Receipt and Invoice Receipts) Matching and Reconciliation: Traditionally, GR/IR matching and reconciliation involves manually matching goods receipts with corresponding invoices and resolving discrepancies. With AI, organizations can automate this process, significantly reducing manual effort and improving efficiency. AI engines can scan and analyze invoices, compare them with goods receipts, and propose matches with a high level of accuracy. Finance professionals can then review and validate these proposed matches, streamlining the reconciliation process and ensuring streamlined and accurate financial reporting.

·?????? Automation of Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable (AR/AP) Transactions: AI can also revolutionize accounts receivable and accounts payable processes. By leveraging AI-powered tools, organizations can automate the monitoring, scanning, and posting of incoming AR and AP transactions. This automation reduces the reliance on manual data entry, minimizes errors, and improves overall efficiency. AI engines can extract relevant information from emails and attachments, classify and process transactions, and generate accurate journal entries in SAP. This end-to-end automation not only saves time but also enhances data accuracy and enables finance teams to focus on more strategic tasks.

·?????? Cash Collections Optimization: By leveraging AI algorithms, organizations can analyze historical data, customer behavior patterns, and external factors to predict cash flow and optimize collections strategies. AI-powered tools can identify high-risk customers, prioritize collection efforts, and recommend personalized collection approaches. This enables finance teams to improve cash flow, reduce bad debt, and enhance customer relationships.

·?????? Ensuring Trust and Governance: Risk management and governance is critical when developing and deploying AI. It is essential to prioritize risk management and governance to ensure the trustworthiness of AI solutions. Organizations need a robust framework to ensure data privacy, fairness, reliability, and compliance with standards. Trust in AI technologies is crucial, and organizations must implement safeguards to maintain transparency, explainability, and auditability.

The KPMG presentation at the SAP conference shed light on the transformative power of AI in finance and the role of SAP solutions in harnessing its potential. Finance teams can leverage AI to increase productivity, profitability, and customer experience while accelerating growth. With SAP's embedded AI engines and the capabilities offered by the SAP Business Technology Platform, organizations can automate processes, gain valuable insights, and make informed decisions.