IN Oracle AI World in Las Vegas, the software giant demonstrated new agent-based artificial intelligence (AI) in its functions Enterprise Resource Planning Fusion Cloud Applications (ERP) and other parts of the Fusion Cloud product line.
Built-in Oracle AI Agent Studio for FusionAgents will be embedded in financial processes to drive productivity gains, improve business efficiency and help account teams comply with the various regulatory regimes they must adhere to.
Speaking to Computer Weekly ahead of the vendor's announcements this week, Oracle Applications vice president Hari Sankar said business finance functions could benefit enormously from AI.
“First of all, accounting is governed by rules, the focus is on compliance, the focus is on getting things done right. [and] that’s a big part of the role of finance,” Sankar said. “I want to make sure that I sign on the dotted line that these numbers are accurate, that I follow the rules and regulations.
“That will never change, but if you look at how it's done today, it's a very labor-intensive process, so we think there's a lot of opportunity for automation.”
Sankar continued: “Secondly, most of the accounting work tends to be loaded at the end of the month or quarter. There are a lot of adjustments, reconciliations, all that stuff that needs to be done. [and] these adjustments and reconciliations must be documented because they must be verifiable.
“AI agents give you the ability to transform these processes from internal fire drills into a set of continuous processes that occur throughout each quarter.”
Rondy Ng, executive vice president of application engineering at Oracle, added: “Oracle is ushering in a new era of agent-driven finance, where AI assistants transform fragmented, complex, time-consuming processes into proactive, continuous operations that free teams to focus on judgment and strategic outcomes.
“CFOs are empowered to make significant changes to operational efficiency and gain real-time business intelligence to help drive faster decision making and shorter cycles, greater compliance and auditability, and healthier working capital.”
The new agents are pre-built and natively integrate with both Fusion Cloud ERP and Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) at no additional cost to the customer.
New agents include an accounts payable agent that helps manage incoming accounts, a ledger agent that helps improve overall financial management and visibility, a planning agent that helps finance teams improve planning processes, and a payments agent that helps streamline outgoing payments.
Customer Insight: Choctaw Indian Nation Uses Fusion AI
Although one of the largest Indian countries in the United States, numbering 250,000 people, has yet to go down the agent route, Choctaw Nation in Oklahomaintegrates Oracle Fusion Cloud applications into your workflows and leverages Fusion's various built-in AI capabilities to automate various processes and goals.
With centuries-old roots, the Oklahoma Choctaw operate as a sovereign nation, and as such, tribal government is responsible for a number of programs in areas such as education, health care and housing. The country even has an independent judiciary, dating back to the 1830s.
The tribe also oversees a number of business activities, operates casinos, resorts and restaurants, and is involved in agriculture and farming.
The Choctaw government turned to Oracle's artificial intelligence services because of its desire to streamline its business processes, expand its capabilities, and offer an expanding range of services to its members.
“For sovereign nations, leadership means planning for future generations. Leveraging artificial intelligence is key to building a strong foundation that supports our values, drives economic growth and ensures our long-term success,” said Emily Crow, CIO of Enterprise Services for the Choctaw Nation.
“With Oracle Fusion Applications, we've been able to automate key business processes, improve analytics, and help develop the next generation of leaders. We've already deployed more than 40 generative AI capabilities and look forward to using more Oracle AI Agents and AI Agent Studio to better support our people and improve operational efficiencies as we continue to expand,” she said.
“With extensive and complex operations, Tribal Nations often find it difficult to control business and workforce data across multiple industries while meeting unique regulatory requirements,” said Steve Miranda, executive vice president of Application Engineering at Oracle.
“With Oracle Fusion Applications, the Choctaw Nation has been able to leverage the cutting-edge capabilities of artificial intelligence to improve productivity, optimize critical business processes, develop the next generation of leaders, and enable a future of innovation and growth.”
Choctaw's IT team leverages Oracle Fusion Cloud's artificial intelligence capabilities in two primary areas: finance and human resources.
On the HR side, in an effort to improve the experience for its more than 13,000 employees, generate more accurate data about its employees and reduce time-consuming manual processes, the company is now leveraging artificial intelligence capabilities in Fusion Cloud Human Capital Managementt (GCM).
These features include agency capabilities to support employees in areas such as goal setting and performance analysis, as well as guidance on career and skill development and opportunity discovery.
The organization is already realizing benefits in several areas – beyond simple time savings, it said it can now scale career development conversations more widely among its employees.
On the financial side, the Choctaw Nation uses Fusion Cloud ERP to improve productivity, reduce costs and improve financial control, and is already using built-in artificial intelligence capabilities to streamline invoice processing. The company also hopes to roll out more AI-powered features such as cash forecasting and narrative reporting.
In addition to all this, the Choctaw Nation also uses Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) generative artificial intelligence to support translation between English and Choctaw, as well as the preservation and development of its pre-Columbian language, which is now spoken by fewer than 300 people.
