Nov 30, 2023

Top Sage executive hails 'world class' Tyneside talent in fight to put AI tools on top Chief technology officer Aaron Harris was on a visit to the region when he stressed the calibre of North East skills Invalid emailSomething went wrong, please try again later. More Newsletters We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info Thank you for subscribing! Invalid emailSomething went wrong, please try again later. Sign Up × The North East should be more confident in its "world class" digital engineering and artificial intelligence capabilities, one of Sage's top international executives has said. Aaron Harris, the accounting software firm's chief technology officer, was visiting the region from the US as part of his work in leading the £1.9bn-revenue giant's product development efforts. And much of that work is focussed on bringing artificial intelligence (AI) to bear for accounts teams in small and medium-sized companies across the world, for whom Sage says there is a huge productivity benefit. Speaking to BusinessLive, Mr Harris said the firm is investing heavily in using the cutting edge technology - work which is chiefly driven by its teams at its North Tyneside global headquarters, the firm's largest global engineering base. But he noted a lack of confidence across the region and the wider country - which is where he says some of the world's most important AI research is taking place through organisations such as the Alan Turing Institute in a way that is not happening in the US. Sage is investing in what Mr Harris calls "narrow AI" to drive accounts payable automation - systems that can read information from invoices, categorise them and then integrate with electronic payments. And in accounts receivable it is underpinning system that encourage faster payments from customers. It's a competitive landscape, with Mr Harris describing a "dog fight" in the medium-sized business market with nearest competitors Oracle with constant leap frogging of each other to push AI capabilities. Using more complex generative AI, which can create content, the firm is offering products that help accounts teams by, for example, replying to email enquiries about invoices that are being chased. Mr Harris says departments can be bombarded with around 100 such emails each day, each which might take 10 minutes to sort out. And perhaps the biggest focus for the firm is its development of a digital assistant - currently being trialled with a selected number of clients - that can coordinate with software other than Sage's own - for example Microsoft Excel - to produce reports. Mr Harris stressed the caution applied to handling of generative AI, which in Sage's case could make a material impact on the success of customers' business. He explained: "The more you automate, the more you have to have trust that the systems are actually doing the job correctly, accurately and competently. A lot of our research - if you look at where our PHD level data scientists are focussing their time, it's almost entirely around ensuring the AI is trusted. We've filed a half dozen patents in the last six months, which are all around the safe use of AI, particularly generative AI. With GPT and other large language models, how do we detect if it's hallucinating and what are some mechanisms we can deploy to prevent them from hallucinating. "Deploying that at a systemic level where we've got hundreds of thousands of customers using AI capabilities- you've got to be able to deploy that at scale. So, it's a huge area of investment for us." As well as creating efficiencies for businesses, Sage hopes its AI products can ultimately boost trust in the businesses themselves. For example, it's first foray into AI involved training models specific to individual businesses that can understand patterns and detect outliers in transactions - such as odd timings - than can then be reviewed by a human and may help to detect fraud. The idea is to focus firms' attention, particularly where accountants teams might be stretched. Mr Harris says Sage's aim is to provide systems that do not require upskilling but acknowledges that resistance can come from teams worrying about giving up responsibilities which until now belonged to humans. Story Saved You can find this story in   My Bookmarks. Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. Follow BusinessLive Most Recent Most Recent