Artificial Intelligence Wants to Make You Management

If you have been working in the accounts payable industry for any length of time, I’d like to do an exercise with you. Close your eyes and think about Excel. Do you see a blank workbook, and the perfectly aligned, untouched columns and rows? What about a draw sheet, organized chaos depicting tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in materials and physical labor? When you go to sleep at night after a long week do these numbers dance around your dreams, taunting you with the thought of grinding away at spreadsheet after spreadsheet? No? Ok, well maybe that’s a tad dramatic, but this process can be tedious, repetitive, and inefficient nonetheless. So we at inBuild asked, “how can we make this better?”

In the last ten years, the idea of Artificial Intelligence has been steadily growing in interest and practical application. It’s no longer just phone assistants and self-driving cars, but AI is making its way into every industry, with a projected economic impact of $15.7 trillion by 2030. According to a recent survey, the biggest obstacle to the adoption of AI is a lack of understanding of the technology and how it can be applied to business. This is not surprising, as the concept of AI is daunting and intimidating for most, but for the accounting industry, it’s nothing new. Accounting has historically been one of the first industries to capitalize on artificial intelligence, with a history of adopting new technologies to increase efficiency. In 1976, the first accounting software was introduced, and with it came the creation of the modern bookkeeper.

That being said, the year is 2022, and accounting software should not remain as it was first created. As the industry has evolved, so have the responsibilities and needs of those who work within it. As your company lands more projects, there is more work to be done. Instead of hiring a new junior, transitioning to a platform that allows for automatic data ingestion and digital payment tracking gives you the power of taking a more managerial approach to accounts payable. 'Putting those invoices in Quickbooks is my job', you might say, 'this would be putting me out of work', you might add. While it might seem like that on the surface, we wholeheartedly disagree. Through the years, spending all that time in all of those spreadsheets has secretly been training your brain to recognize patterns and see the bigger picture at a glance. Inputting data may seem like your job, but your value to the industry is your expertise in viewing the broad financial overview and picking out errors, patterns, and solving problems.

If inBuild removes the repetitive data entry from your workflow, you are given more time to solve complex problems and improve efficiency elsewhere within your company. The Accounts Payable Association agrees, “Making the move to AP automation has the opportunity to reduce costs and improve the department's efficiency. This can potentially make the accounts payable team a more strategic and data-driven body.” For small and midsize companies, this is especially powerful, as it allows you to punch above your weight class. When every dollar and decision matters, more time for top-level analytical thinking is critical.

Artificial Intelligence is not going to take your job. It is not meant to take your job. The creative problem-solving and adaptivity of human beings make us far too valuable to ever be completely removed from the industry. Instead, view AI as a new tool for you to supercharge your workflow and increase (not diminish) your value in the workplace. If you start saving your company time and money, who knows, maybe there’s a promotion or bonus on the horizon.

Learn more about how inBuild can automate the repetitive tasks and tedious parts of your workflow. Allow us to handle the number crunching and digital pencil pushing. Contact us today and schedule a demo from one of our experts. We could be the accounts payable solution you’ve been waiting for. Schedule a demo today and find out.