Beyond e-invoicing: How AI is reshaping the future of finance operations
UiPath’s Ionut Valentin Sas outlines how AI is helping CFOs move beyond efficiency towards better cash flow, governance and business insight
15 July, 2026
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As finance leaders continue to invest in digital transformation, a growing challenge is emerging inside accounts payable (AP): organisations have automated routine invoice processing, but many still struggle when transactions fall outside the standard workflow.
According to Ionut Valentin Sas, SVP finance at UiPath, the future of finance automation will be determined not by how quickly invoices are processed, but by how effectively organisations manage the exceptions that continue to require human intervention.
With the UAE preparing for mandatory e-invoicing and artificial intelligence (AI) becoming increasingly embedded in enterprise finance, Sas believes the next phase of automation will focus on enabling finance teams to resolve complex cases faster while maintaining governance and financial control.
Exception handling remains the missing link
While invoice digitisation and straight-through processing have become standard across many enterprises, Sas argues that automation often breaks down when invoices fail to match purchase orders, require multiple approvals or contain missing information.
“The reality is that processing a standard invoice has become relatively straightforward. The real challenge has always been the exceptions,” he says.
Those exceptions frequently move outside structured workflows into emails and spreadsheets, where finance teams manually investigate issues, coordinate with procurement and suppliers, and seek approvals.
“From a CFO’s perspective, that’s where the cost sits. It’s not the invoices that flow straight through, it’s the minority that consume the majority of the team’s time. The next generation of automation needs to handle those higher-value decisions while ensuring the right governance and human oversight remain in place.” He notes that most organisations have already realised the benefits of automating routine invoice processing, leaving the more judgement-intensive tasks as the next major opportunity for transformation. “Exception management isn’t just about one invoice. It often requires bringing together data from ERP systems, procurement platforms, contracts, previous transactions and supplier communications before a decision can be made.”
The hidden cost of being ‘almost automated’
For many finance functions, partial automation creates a false sense of digital maturity.
Rather than eliminating manual work, it often shifts finance professionals towards the most time-consuming and complex tasks, affecting productivity, working capital and supplier relationships.
“‘Almost automated’ often means you’ve automated the lowest-value work while leaving your people with the most complex and time-consuming tasks.”
Delayed approvals can result in missed early-payment discounts, weaker cash management and prolonged supplier disputes, while manual investigations consume skilled finance resources that could otherwise support forecasting and strategic planning.
Sas also warns that governance becomes more difficult when finance processes move outside managed systems. “Perhaps most importantly, decision-makers lose visibility. When work is happening across emails and spreadsheets rather than within governed workflows, it becomes much harder to understand where bottlenecks exist or where financial risk is emerging.”
As the UAE moves towards mandatory e-invoicing, Sas believes businesses should treat compliance as a catalyst for wider finance transformation rather than a standalone regulatory requirement.
“Compliance should be viewed as the starting point, not the end goal.”
He says finance leaders should use the transition to modernise end-to-end AP processes, improve data quality, strengthen governance and ensure finance systems integrate seamlessly across the organisation. Standardised digital invoices may improve visibility, but they will not eliminate exceptions. “It’s also an opportunity to rethink exception handling. Standardised digital invoices improve visibility, but exceptions won’t disappear. Finance leaders should ensure they have processes that can intelligently resolve those cases while maintaining compliance and auditability.”
AI moves from detection to decision support
Sas believes AI is entering a new phase within finance, moving beyond document recognition and anomaly detection towards actively supporting decision-making.
Rather than simply identifying invoice mismatches, AI can now gather supporting documentation, analyse historical decisions, recommend potential resolutions, prepare supplier communications and direct cases to the appropriate stakeholders.
“The biggest shift is that AI can now assist with the work that follows identification.”
He stresses, however, that AI should augment finance professionals rather than replace them.
“Importantly, in finance this shouldn’t be viewed as replacing human judgement. The objective is to augment experienced finance professionals by accelerating investigation and presenting well-informed recommendations, while ensuring that significant financial decisions remain governed and transparent.”
Traditional finance automation metrics such as processing time, cost per invoice and straight-through processing rates remain important, but Sas argues they no longer provide the full picture.
Instead, CFOs should increasingly measure automation by its business impact.
“But today I’d place greater emphasis on business outcomes. How quickly are exceptions resolved? How predictable is cash flow? Are we improving working capital? Are we reducing operational risk? Are finance professionals spending more time supporting commercial decisions rather than processing transactions and provide high value added inputs?”
For Sas, successful automation is ultimately about enabling finance to become a strategic business partner rather than simply improving operational efficiency. “Ultimately, successful automation should strengthen the finance function’s ability to provide insight and support business growth, not simply process transactions faster.” Despite rapid advances in AI, Sas says finance departments cannot compromise on governance, transparency or compliance.
He believes organisations should define clear approval thresholds, maintain comprehensive audit trails and ensure AI decisions remain explainable.
“Finance has always operated within a strong framework of controls, and AI shouldn’t change that, it should reinforce it.” While low-risk, repetitive transactions can increasingly be handled autonomously, higher-value or unusual financial decisions should continue to involve human oversight. “As CFOs, we don’t simply need faster decisions, we need decisions that are explainable, compliant and aligned with our governance framework.”
Towards an autonomous finance function
Looking ahead, Sas expects accounts payable to become significantly more proactive over the next five years, powered by agentic automation operating behind intuitive user experiences.
“I believe the AP function will become far more proactive than reactive and significantly more focused to employees and suppliers experiences, by having a simple and intuitive user interface, supported by agentic automation in the back.”
Routine transactions are expected to process autonomously, while AI will increasingly resolve today’s manual exceptions.
That evolution will allow finance professionals to shift their focus from chasing approvals and investigating discrepancies towards supplier performance, spending analysis, working capital optimisation and strategic decision-making.
“Ultimately, I don’t see AI replacing finance professionals. I see it allowing finance teams to operate at a much higher level, using their expertise to guide the business while routine operational work happens increasingly in the background under appropriate governance.”
