3 AI Integration Options for Your Business

This article is the second in a series detailing how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can automate payables, analyze data or improve collections to help your business succeed.

The number of Artificial Intelligence (AI) business applications continues to grow daily. As discussed in the first article, there are systems now available to help enhance workplace efficiency, including matching purchase orders on incoming invoices, applying payments to outstanding invoices, monitoring fraud and more.

The right partner can help determine the best technology for your accounts payable and receivable departments to begin integrating AI into these daily tasks. A great first step is to understand the integration options offered by a prospective provider. Below are the three main available options:

1. Rigid

Rigid systems are characterized by how the data sent from your enterprise resource planning (ERP) software gets in or out of the provider’s AI platform. Most rigid systems require the customer to format data via exact specifications for their technology to work with your ERP. This may increase the work a customer must do to integrate, but it should reduce the amount of time it takes to build the system.

2. Agnostic

Opposite of a rigid system is an agnostic system. These providers build their systems around what the customer can produce from their ERP. This customization may increase the time it takes to produce the system, but should reduce the work a customer must complete to integrate the technology into their ERP’s data.

3. API

Application programming interfaces (APIs) are unique tools that bring data from one system to another system. In general, APIs take data requests from you, translate that request into a language the core system can interpret, receive the requested data from the core system, translate it into a language your ERP can understand and deliver the data to you.

For an API to work correctly, it often needs access to internal systems whenever a request is made. Many businesses are uncomfortable with sharing access to their private data via a third-party tool. Also, these tools are built for specific functions and systems, so an API may not yet exist for your ERP. Fortunately, more and more APIs are created every year.  

Understanding the systems available to you can help jumpstart your business’s integration journey.

To learn more about how these integration options can support your business, reach out to a Bankers Trust Treasury Officer.

Check out the first article in the series: How AI Automation Can Drive Business Success