We are excited to bring Transform 2022 back in-person July 19 and virtually July 20 - 28. Join AI and data leaders for insightful talks and exciting networking opportunities. New York-headquartered Vic.ai, a startup that provides a platform to automate accounting and financial processes for enterprises, today announced an AI-powered tool for enterprise-grade cost optimization. Officially dubbed Spend Intelligence, the offering comes as the latest addition to Vic's flagship intelligence product designed to provide business and operational insights to help companies improve existing processes. According to the company, the feature will further expand the product, enabling enterprise finance departments to make better, data-backed choices about their costs and eventually improve profits. "With Spend Intelligence, we continue to push the boundaries of what AI can do for finance," Alexander Hagerup, CEO of Vic.ai, said.

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to make its way throughout the back office, exploring new areas to automate and optimize, freeing up human experts for more strategic initiatives. Today, the standard level of AI in a process like accounts payable (AP) most often appears as a technology that can automatically "read" key documents like invoices and identify and extract important information like supplier and pricing. Alexander T. Hagerup, co-founder and CEO of Vic.ai, recently told PYMNTS that AI has a far greater opportunity in the enterprise, including in AP automation. In an interview, Hagerup discussed his vision for the technology's presence in a notoriously complex and manual area of the back office and considered what the adoption curve may look like as more professionals feel comfortable with technology taking over important actions. As AI technology becomes more sophisticated, some of the most ingrained pain points of AP workflows no longer seem like difficult challenges to overcome.