Co-founder Kunal Verma shares his thoughts on our latest innovations and the key role of agentic AI in the future of finance.
Kunal developed AppZen's core artificial intelligence technology and currently oversees the company’s R&D and data science teams. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science with a focus on semantic technologies, is a published author with over 50 refereed papers, and holds several granted patents.
We’re not automating finance. We’re reinventing it with agentic AI at the core.
The future of finance AI is agentic
It’s not easy to scale your finance function, particularly in the face of global changes and pressures. Some companies achieve this by automating existing finance operations. At AppZen, we see a greater opportunity in reinventing them.
Our Mastermind AI Platform is the beating heart of that reinvention strategy.
This powerful platform initially operated in the background, where only our teams could create and customize Apps and functions for you. Now we’re bringing those capabilities to the public with unique functionalities so you can scale your finance operations and accelerate your entire business.
5 of the latest finance AI developments
At this year’s global AppZen on Tour events, I shared with customers five of our latest finance AI developments resulting from what many are calling an agentic revolution:
AI Agents for finance teams
Low-code DIY automations for “do-it-yourself” policy customization
Smart Workflows for faster approvals
Advanced fraud detection that catches sophisticated AI-generated fakes
AI Analytics tools that allow you to talk to your data in natural language
All of this is possible because of our decades-long dedication to making AI for finance a transformative reality for our customers. We’re not automating finance. We’re reinventing it with agentic AI at the core.
AI Agents that take decisive action on SOPs
If Mastermind is at the heart of these changes, our agentic AI is the brain. This is where AI not only makes decisions, it directs the system to take action. Our AI Agents aren’t automation scripts. They’re intelligent software systems that use AI models, along with other tools, to understand context and make critical decisions.
Think of it like training a new team member. Your company has SOPs, or standard operating procedures, that define specific business processes, with decision criteria and actions you are expected to take. AppZen’s AI Agents turn these SOPs into defined goals, similar to ones you might give to a junior teammate. Agents then use the tools and data at their disposal to independently achieve those goals.
Both AppZen Expense Audit and Autonomous AP have dedicated AI Agents that operate at the start of your workflow, increasing efficiency and scalability. For example, if you have specific requirements for validating hotel receipts in China, you can simply document these requirements, and the AI Agent will implement them. It will check each report for itemization, confirm the correct entity information, flag any missing fapiao receipts, and ensure the proper expense categorization. It will then decide whether those expenses should be approved or rejected and will take action to complete the next steps.
The Mastermind Platform also includes a simulation interface where you can test how each AI Agent performs against actual reports. This gives you more transparency into the AI Agent's decision-making process, so you can further refine your SOPs over time.
DIY customization lets you build without coding
Our Mastermind Apps are easy to deploy—you simply enable or disable them. These extensions to our existing solution are ideal for solving complex yet common finance challenges. In the past, however, all changes or customizations would have to be done by AppZen coders. Our customers couldn’t be as responsive to changing business needs as they needed to be.
Our new DIY framework is a major leap forward. Now, you can create custom behaviors to meet your business’s specific needs. These DIY functions simplify updating your SOPs. There’s no need to submit a ticket or incur any IT debt. If you can use a dropdown box and fill an open field, you can change the functions of the AI yourself.
Each DIY implementation consists of three key components:
Triggers that determine where in the process the action occurs (before audit, during audit, after audit)
Conditions that specify when the action should happen
Actions that define what should occur when conditions are met
What makes this system particularly powerful is the ability to combine multiple conditions, create complex decision trees, and tailor the system precisely to your organization’s needs.
As an example, for a policy requiring manager approval for Business Class travel, you can easily create a DIY implementation where 1) the trigger occurs before an auditor’s review, 2) the condition identifies “Business Class” in the receipt, and 3) the action routes to the appropriate manager for approval.
Now, every customer, regardless of technical expertise, can build and adjust compliance checks and workflows without writing a single line of code.
Smart Workflows for context-rich approvals
More and more end-users are engaging with our platform. That’s why we’re continually creating new user experiences. From approvers resolving PO exceptions to managers reviewing expense reports, these usability enhancements are helping finance teams partner with business users across their companies.
Smart Workflow approval is one of these areas where our AI goes above and beyond simple routing to help managers make informed decisions quickly. With Smart Workflows, when an exception requires approval, the system forwards the request along with all relevant context.
In our previous Business Class travel example, the approval notification sent to the submitter’s manager might include the specific policy exception (Business Class travel) and cost details. It also includes personalized recommendations for the manager based on information about the individual’s role, travel patterns, and more.
The beauty of this approach is its personalization. Two employees on the same team traveling via Business Class might generate completely different recommendations. For a salesperson who regularly meets clients, the system might note that this is a normal travel pattern. For an IT professional who rarely travels, AI might flag this as unusual, but note that it’s the result of a specific conference or client meeting. This contextual intelligence makes approvals meaningful, rather than rubber-stamping exercises.
Suspicious receipt detection keeps you ahead of AI fraud
As AI technology has evolved, so have the methods used to commit fraud. Recently, we’ve seen an increase in sophisticated AI-generated receipt fraud as image generation tools have gotten better at creating images with wrinkled paper and realistic-looking food stains. Bad actors are creating believable fake and modified receipts to try to fool your expense auditing system—and you. They’re generated or altered from legitimate expenses using fake receipt websites, as well as ChatGPT, Gemini, and other LLMs.
Our comprehensive Suspicious Receipt Report is just one part of our suite of fraud detection capabilities that catches these fake receipt types. Our models look for patterns, like employees submitting similar receipts using the same server name, or ordering the same meal repeatedly with different totals. We call them our Fraud Pack models, and they have already helped our customers identify thousands of dollars in potentially fraudulent submissions.
The future of finance is fundamentally different from anything the world knew just a decade ago. It’s powered by intelligent agents that understand context, learn from experience, and continuously improve over time.
Insights that make your data work harder
We process millions of transactions every day, in order to offer our customers deeper insights. You can simply ask our AI Analytics dashboard questions like, “Which employee has the most unauthorized spend?” and receive immediate answers. Natural language queries have turned static dashboards into living, breathing, responsive tools that give you the exact information you need, when you need it.
An agentic AI future that’s like nothing you’ve seen
The future of finance is fundamentally different from anything the world knew just a decade ago. It’s powered by intelligent agents that understand context, learn from experience, and continuously improve over time.
I’m excited to share the Mastermind Platform’s latest advances because they reflect our fundamental belief that we can do more than automate finance—we can reinvent it with agentic AI technology. Combining this technology with our AI solutions, we’re building features like customizable workflows, enhanced fraud detection, and in-depth data insights, giving global companies the power to achieve economies of scale never seen before.
There’s more on the near horizon. Contact us today for a live demo and see for yourself what AI Agents can do for your finance team.
