How to leverage the power of AI to build a high-performing finance team
Think of it as your digital finance wingman. It’s watching, learning, and acting for you.
This isn’t hype. It’s right here, right now.
What is agentic AI, and why does it matter?
We’ve all explored generative AI like ChatGPT and how it can respond to prompts, for some amazing and often spookily human-like responses.
Agentic AI goes far beyond this. It doesn’t need prompting by you. It watches data, spots changes, and acts autonomously.
In other words, it doesn’t wait for you.
Here’s what Aaron Harris, chief technology officer at Sage, said recently at Sage Future 2025 in Atlanta: “We don’t need AI that’s passively waiting for a prompt. We need AI that’s always on… Combining reasoning, memory, and autonomy.”
Ask yourself if your team is still doing the following:
- Still logging into dashboards, hoping you didn’t miss something?
- Missing early warnings in sales or contracts?
- Stuck reacting, instead of acting?
Agentic AI fills that gap. It’s the pinnacle of AI evolution, growing out of task-based AI, then generative AI.
Under the bonnet: How agentic AI changes your finance stack
Here’s what you can expect.
1. Continuous accounting:
Getting data in, friction-free Forget batch data dumps. These AI agents monitor exceptions, detect anomalies, and correct patterns for you. It’s far beyond just processing documents. This is a whole intelligent system applied to your data.
2. Continuous assurance: Real-time trust in the numbers
Stop waiting for month-end.
Reconciliation and variance analysis happen in near real time. Tasks such as reconciliation and variance analysis are starting earlier. Anomalies are caught early. Corrections can occur before they snowball.
Think about the competitive advantage. While another firm like yours might just be spotting a problem and pulling a report, you’ve not only spotted the issue due to agentic AI, but fixed it—and have moved onto the next strategic challenge.
3. Continuous insight: From reports to recommendations
Again, no more pulling reports. Agentic AI delivers alerts and recommendations exactly when something matters, such as churn risk. You’re not guessing. You’re leading, based on agentic AI telling you what matters.
It’s all about the context. It’s all about what matters right now. Those who use it say the same thing: why has it taken until now for this to be something every finance leader should have in their toolkit?
Seeing it live: A CFO scenario
Picture this: revenue tracking feels steady but shorter-term contracts are creeping in.
That’s risk mixed in. Usually, it’d show up late in the books. Not anymore.
Sage Copilot within Sage Intacct is already leading the way:
- You set a watcher on your forecast.
- AI notices contract terms changing.
- It proactively flags you—even if top-line is still green.
That’s turning reactive into proactive. It’s insight finding you.
Trust matters more than buzz—and you can trust agentic AI
Finance doesn’t tolerate tech hype, nor generative AI hallucinations. You need precise, auditable, domain-trained AI.
Sage doesn’t rely on generic GPT. It built its own model, built on seven billion parameters and trained on accounting standards, Sage help docs, and compliance data. It’s audit-ready and consistent.
Sage even introduced an AI Trust Label that applies to its products, such as Sage Intacct. This promises to always:
- Explain how the model was trained
- Show how accuracy is measured
- Outline safeguards to protect data
- Disclose how bias is minimised.
That’s trust built for CFOs and auditors. Ask yourself if any product you’re considering has committed to such fundamental honestly and openness. This is a key way to measure product effectiveness moving forward.
Planning your AI-first finance team
Want to get started? Here’s how.
1. Think deeply. Start small
Set up agentic monitoring on a high-impact metric—cash flow, contract changes, invoice ageing. Measure the before/after. Then double down.
2. Train, don’t overload
Onboard your team with clear “this is practical” sessions. Show how AI spots anomalies, not just answers prompts. People love smart shortcuts.
3. Humans lead, AI assists
Don’t hand over the reins. Embed governance, rule-checking, audit trails. Let your people question, validate, and guide. AI assists, while humans decide.
Seize the moment
The world has changed and traditional tools you rely upon right now are lagging.
Agentic AI has created not just a new rulebook but a whole new game, and smart, growth-focused finance teams are leaning in to pull ahead.
As Sage Copilot continues to expand its capabilities, you can grasp the building blocks:
- Real-time access to actionable insights
- Autonomous monitoring of key metrics
- Seamless collaboration
- Embedded trust through transparent, domain-specific AI.
Every day you wait, you reinforce old habits. So here’s the ask: are you ready to stop watching dashboards and start letting your finance software work for you?
Will you let agentic agents do the grunt work so your team can own strategy and really show what they’re capable of
Or will you keep reacting… while others lead?
The future of finance isn’t tomorrow—it’s available today. Make the bold move.
Off-the-clock insight? Checked. Strategic empowerment? On its way. Time to turn finance into a high-performance engine.
Discover how Sage Intacct can transform your finance team into a high-performance powerhouse—start your journey today and lead with insight, not hindsight.
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