Australian based fintech startup EzzyBills uses advanced Artificial Intelligence to help automate your bookkeeping. EzzyBills has built native integrations with the most popular small business accounting software including Xero, QuickBooks, and MYOB. As well, with a range of integrations for inventory and project management software such as DEAR and SimPRO, EzzyBills is a perfect choice for data extraction, management approvals, invoice and order matching, and e-invoicing. Although EzzyBills' most well-known feature is automated data extraction from documents, EzzyBills also automates other aspects of the accounting function such as statement reconciliation, price checking, and audit checking. As one of our longtime clients, Donough remarked, "This has literally changed the way we do business. All our invoices are now stored in Xero, it really couldn't be easier. Best character recognition software I've ever used. Upload via email, browser, iPhone app, or drag and drop into google drive. Dr Michael Fitzmaurice, the Co-Founder of EzzyBills shared, "Before we founded EzzyBills in 2014 I was working as a software developer building custom software for large organisations.

The AI Forum continues to publish the outputs of our research programme. Two new reports AI for Health in New Zealand / Haoura i te Atamai Iahiko and AI for Agriculture in New Zealand / Ahuwhenua i te Atamai Iahiko explore in depth the AI opportunities for New Zealand's crucial health and agriculture sectors. Continued thanks to the AI Forum's research programme partners for their foundational support to enable this work. AI Forum Executive Council members Christopher Laing (Xero) and Michael Witbrock (University of Auckland) were recently interviewed by Kathryn Ryan on RNZ's Nine To Noon show, listen to AI: two years for NZ to get it right. Meanwhile, I was interviewed at length by the Spinoff's Russell Brown in the latest episode of the Microsoft'Artificial Intelligence – Actually Interesting' podcast series: The cancer-fighting, wildlife-protecting, life-saving power of artificial intelligence.

Xero has bolstered its machine learning capabilities for document processing and extraction using technology from Hubdoc, a company that the cloud accounting firm acquired last year for $70 million. According to Xero, the new machine learning capabilities means advisors will have access to more accurate information, gain deeper understanding of financial health, and the flow of data will become more automated. Xero added it is working with advisors to pilot a short-term cash flow tool that uses data and advanced statistical methods to provide small businesses with a 30-day view of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cash flow predictions, including impact of existing bills and invoices. In addition, the company has introduced single sign-on, touting it as making it easier for developers to build on the Xero platform, onboard new users, and integrate Xero with certified third-party apps. Updates to the Xero Advisor Directory using geo-targeting have also been made, the company said during Xerocon Brisbane 2019, noting the technology will make it easier for small businesses to find a local accountant or bookkeeper and onboard new clients.

Artificial intelligence has received a mixed welcome from corporates exploring how the technology could disrupt their operations. While AI can deliver time and cost savings, automation and actionable insights, executives are also concerned that the tool will displace professionals like accountants and procurement officials. New research suggests, however, that the technology is finding harmony in these two areas of the enterprise. Small business accounting firm Xero and spend management company Ivalua each released new research this week analyzing how artificial intelligence has impacted their perspective arenas. "The accounting industry is frequently held up as one of the industries most likely to be negatively impacted by AI and automation," Xero said in its announcement on Wednesday (June 6) of new research on the impact of AI on small business accounting.

Google estimate human-level AI will be reached by 2029, with 16% of employment positions in the US estimated to be lost to AI networks over the coming years. Gartner, the research company, have calculated that 33% of all occupations could be undertaken by robots by 2025, predominantly in logistics, finance, customer service, health care, and manufacturing. With such large numbers of jobs at stake, it's hard to ignore how the rise in AI will affect the accounting world and, specifically, accounting practices. Applications can handle data, produce reports and generate statements quicker and with more precision than a human, but does this indicate the end of the accounting profession? Many fear job losses, but to give a little context, many of the current in-demand-jobs (posts that technological and societal shifts brought rise to) had not been created ten years ago and the World Economic Forum estimates that 65% of children currently in primary school will hold positions that are yet to be imagined. The same fears of job losses were discussed in the mid-nineteenth century with the advent of the first industrial revolution - those fears quickly subsided - as we sit on the advent of the fourth industrial revolution similar fears are coming to the fore again.

After decades stuck in research labs, artificial intelligence (AI) is ready for prime-time, transforming if not disrupting all the sectors of the economy that generate lots of data (big data), from tech to finance, communications, energy, healthcare, mobility or manufacturing. More than most other industries, accounting hasn't seen much innovation since the creation of double-entry bookkeeping – a process of recording both profits and losses – and considered one of the greatest advances in the history of business and commerce. That was over 500 years ago! However, the good news is that applying AI and machine learning technologies to bookkeeping, is becoming a reality with most of the major accounting software vendors (Intuit, OneUp, Sage, and Xero) currently offering capabilities to automate data entry, reconciliations and sometimes more. In our upcoming research report on the future of accounting, we expect that by 2020, accounting tasks – but also tax, payroll, audits, banking… – will be fully automated using AI-based technologies, which will disrupt the accounting industry in a way it never was for the last 500 years, bringing both huge opportunities and serious challenges.

From taking photos of cows to predict whether they were on heat to Xero's Code-Free accounting, will machine learning take my job and how to get started with Machine Learning, press play on our 4th #AIChats Podcast with Xero's Kathryn Hempstalk.

Recently I've been spending time looking at the various initiatives that the accounting software vendors have in terms of applying automation (via artificial intelligence) to their core offerings. While my assessment is that there is little happening in the enterprise space around this topic, in the small- and mid-sized accounting space there is huge amounts of work being done on this. I have seen development from a number of the main players in the space aligned to this automation theme and recently spent some time at Xero's global HQ talking to their own machine learning team. It is hardly surprising that Xero is at the forefront of talking about machine learning -- its CEO, Rod Drury, has been waxing poetic for some time about the company's move to Amazon Web Services and what that move enables in terms of utilizing the higher-level machine learning services that the Amazon cloud offers. But beyond cool functionality being talked about, I've been thinking about what the end result of all this automation will be for the practitioners of note today -- those accountants and bookkeepers who are responsible for the millions and millions of small- and mid-sized businesses' and their accounts.

Transcepta, a procure-to-pay platform, is ramping up its use of artificial intelligence (AI), the company said late last week. In an announcement, the company said its leveraging of AI and predictive analytics technologies can enable smarter procurement decision making. "Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics are transforming business processes and setting the expectation from customers for seamless function and automation," said Transcepta CEO Ray Parsons in a statement. Its AI capabilities can enable invoice validation and processing features, with 99 percent accuracy in predicting data for missing fields on purchase orders or invoices, the firm said. Last month Euler Hermes inked a partnership with Flowcast to integrate AI into the trade credit insurance process in an effort to mitigate risk of B2B trade. The technology has also permeated across B2B FinTech, with companies like Xero, which operates a small business cloud accounting platform, also deploying AI.

Xero has introduced what it says is the first personalised machine learning capability for a small business cloud accounting system. Its main role is to automatically allocate the correct account code to invoices. Xero says it uses detailed statistical analysis to learn from and assist the individual business and their partner based on their own specific circumstances. "The automation will mean small businesses no longer need to worry about where their invoice is filed - an invoice for time spent on site should be recorded against'Sales – Labour', not'Sales – Materials', for instance." According to Xero there are more than 10.1 million unique account codes in Xero created by small businesses, meaning items are often entered incorrectly, creating hours of work for the accountants who need to correct them.