Unlocking Synergies by Combining SAP Finance Solutions with SAP Business AI 

Before exploring SAP's AI capabilities in finance, let's address the main question: How can AI and automation help finance teams become strategic business partners?

AI isn't the ultimate goal; enhancing process efficiency is. Automation reduces errors and costs in manual tasks like sales orders and financial postings, freeing employees for valuable work. It aids in meeting tight deadlines and handling numerous journal entries by managing disputes and claims efficiently. Moreover, it unifies data from various transaction sources, including paper and electronic invoices. By integrating SAP with legacy systems, automation simplifies financial processes. It also ensures regulatory compliance through logged activities and auditable workflows.

Looking into how intelligent automation can help overcome these challenges, we can identify these categories:

Digital assistants, such as chatbots, enhance interactions by providing immediate financial advice and facilitating purchase order approvals. They streamline communication with expert support when needed.

Process automation optimizes repetitive tasks like journal entry creation, eliminating manual spreadsheet preparation and reducing errors, especially with tools like SAP Build Process Automation.

Situation handling detects exceptions and notifies relevant parties with actionable insights, such as alerting about closed house bank accounts still configured for payments.

Machine learning enhances operations by using self-learning applications that dynamically adapt, such as automatically matching payments with open receivables in cash applications.

Overall, these technologies streamline interactions, optimize processes, anticipate issues, and continuously enhance business operations.

Looking at SAP’s take on AI from a more technical perspective, this is built up from 3 layers as shown in the figure below:

• Relevant: Drive immediate business impact with AI embedded across your organization.
• Reliable: Make confident decisions based on AI grounded in your business data.
• Responsible: Put AI into practice with the highest ethical, security, and privacy standards.

In the following examples, you can see how SAP Business AI enhances finance operations.

SAP's AI-powered Dispute Management helps reps quickly resolve customer concerns. Watch James use it effectively.

See how SAP Business AI streamlines payment processing by automating data extraction, review, and item clearing.

Discover how AI helps project controllers optimize the lead to cash cycle. Follow Ella as she uses AI tools to analyze KPIs, review profitability, and collaborate with her digital assistant Joule.