Financial operations platform Ramp on Wednesday launched AI agents that it says will work across its purchasing platform to help improve the business buying process. The agents will assist in the overall procurement workflows—this includes sourcing vendors, handling compliance checks, and reviewing contract terms.
“Ramp's mission is to save companies time and money, and a lot of time and a lot of money is being spent when it comes to business purchasing,” Geoff Charles, the chief product officer at Ramp said In an interview with This Week in Fintech.
Implementation of this tool is especially helpful for small and midsize businesses that often require a range of software needs and professional services for day-to-day operations, but lack the headcount to better streamline and track these processes, according to Charles. Oftentimes, employees at these smaller businesses are purchasing items without the support of a procurement department that is often found at large enterprises and Fortune 500s.
This means that finance teams are often surprised by invoices or contract renewals that come in for them to approve, Charles said.
“Employees are being asked to negotiate on their behalf, and they're buying things left and right…and it takes a lot of time to get things through, approvals, legal teams, IT teams, compliance teams, budget reviews,” he said.
This comes as more and more companies are signing contracts and increasingly implementing digital tools, such as video conferencing software like Zoom and communication software such as Slack or Microsoft Teams. Ramp’s AI agent can answer questions about what option would work best. A company in need of a vendor can request a list of ideas for invoicing software options or other needs in plain English, and Ramp’s AI agent will create a list tailored to the business’s size and specific needs.
Procurement customers can save an average of 16% on annual vendor costs while eliminating more than 40 hours of work a month. Human oversight will still be key for financial and compliance workflows; these AI agents will not eliminate the need for financial officers or a lawyer at an SMB, Charles said. With less time spent managing or fixing a disjointed procurement process, businesses can focus on other critical tasks.
This isn’t Ramp’s first large artificial intelligence-related rollout. Last year the operations platform launched AI agents to support business accountants and other finance professionals. Ramp’s agents have saved finance teams hours of manual work. This was one of several other AI rollouts.
Ramp’s agents boast an accuracy rate of about 99% and responses are powered by pricing data from millions of transactions. As companies use the procurement agents to streamline their process, the hope is that with more data over time that accuracy will stay the same. AI agents are going to be implemented into more of Ramp’s products in the future, Charles noted.
“[Ramp is] going to go further in the vendor management space, in the cash space and over time, more functions of the finance suites,” he said. “Our hope is to be the one-stop shop for all of finance, and to consolidate all the different financial operations.”
