The Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast

Doug, Emily, and Matt dive into Sage's artificial intelligence initiatives, discussing key features like GL outlier detection, AP automation, and the upcoming Sage Copilot. They explore how AI is transforming accounting processes, from enabling continuous close to enhancing decision-making capabilities. The conversation touches on the ethical considerations of AI in finance and speculates on the future impact of these technologies on the accounting profession.


  • (00:00) - Welcome to the Unofficial Sage Intaact Podcast
  • (00:32) - Conference Experiences and Observations
  • (02:44) - Favorite Conferences
  • (04:09) - Continuous Accounting and AI Innovations
  • (16:48) - The Fear Around AI
  • (18:53) - The Ethics of AI in Accounting
  • (24:05) - Practical AI Applications in Sage Intact
  • (32:35) - Integrating Third-Party Products into Sage Network
  • (34:53) - Introduction to Sage Copilot
  • (40:59) - Future of AI in Accounting
  • (47:06) - Mergers and Acquisitions in the AI Space
  • (49:25) - Fun Anecdotes and Closing Remarks

Connect with the Hosts:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilybmadere
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattlescault
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dlewis715

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Creators & Guests

Host
Doug Lewis
Host
Emily Madere
Host
Matt Lescault

What is The Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast ?

The Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast is your inside track to the world of Sage Intacct and the broader accounting industry. Hosts Emily Madere, Doug Lewis, and Matt Lescault bring their unique perspectives and expertise to explore the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in this rapidly evolving space.
In each episode, the trio explores topics like the power of the Sage ecosystem, best practices for CAS, new Sage product features, and the impact of artificial intelligence. They'll be joined by industry experts and Sage insiders who share unfiltered insights you won't find anywhere else.
Whether you're an accountant looking to harness technology, a business exploring Sage solutions, or anyone fascinated by the future of finance, this is your show. Tune in for an unvarnished, unofficial look at the Sage heartbeat powering accounting today.

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Doug Lewis: So this is a weird one. I know two of the three of us are not at our normal sites. As you can tell, I didn't remodel my office as a hotel room, even though it might look that way.

Matt Lescault: It looks better in your office.

Doug Lewis: Yeah, yeah, well, you know, it is what it is. I like the landline stuff. Wait. This side. Anyone who's watching the little landline over here, stuff, which is great. [00:00:30] Um, that's. I love being home, so I'm in a hotel in Nashville. Matt, you are also not in a normal place. It looks like.

Matt Lescault: I'm in Cleveland.

Doug Lewis: I don't know where our listeners are yet, so I'll just keep my mouth shut on that one. Um, why are you in Cleveland?

Matt Lescault: I am at AC, which is the American Society of Association Executives. Uh, conference. Can I tell you a little secret? I don't know why I've never been to this conference before. It is a party. Nobody [00:01:00] is here to actually do, see or learn anything. They're here to be on the exhibit, show, drink, eat and get swag. There was there's literally a build a bear station.

Emily Madere: I'm gonna need you to, like, circulate a picture of you building a bear like I did. I didn't do build a bear.

Matt Lescault: My kids, I've done. I've done build a bear too many times with my kids. But I was just like, I walk into it. I'm like, where did I just show up? What is this place and why have I never been before? [00:01:30] You, Doug, you're somewhere I man.

Doug Lewis: Nothing gets by you. I am somewhere, uh, as as is Emily on this one. Yeah, I just touched on it. Nashville. A little over an hour ago for zero con.

Matt Lescault: Zero con. Uh, but you're you're Nash Vegas.

Doug Lewis: I am, uh, I've been several times. I think this is 3 or 4 on the year and at least 1 or 2 left. So, um, I'm maxed [00:02:00] out, uh, one could say for 20, 24, uh, but nonetheless, it's it's exciting. It's supposed to be a pretty big event. Um, it's still getting slapped together. The whole production aspect of everything, um, you know, so I gotta I gotta run, actually, not too long from now and go do some kind of sound check, um, walkthrough thing for tomorrow. So that'll be interesting to see how that plays out. But big production nonetheless. In the lion's den, one could say, since we are the unofficial Sage Intacct podcast. Yeah.

Emily Madere: So you're [00:02:30] kind of like seven word.

Matt Lescault: Yeah, it's kind of cheating on us or something like that. You're at the zero behind.

Doug Lewis: Behind enemy lines. Hey, you know what? Whoever write the check, that's that's that's it right there.

Matt Lescault: Maybe whoever writes the there's so many things I could say about that, but that makes that makes perfect sense for you.

Emily Madere: So I'm curious. I'm curious, what's everyone's favorite conference?

Matt Lescault: Oh, we're on the unofficial Sage conference. Isn't Sage this conference that we have to we have to say.

Emily Madere: That I gotta say, I.

Doug Lewis: Think we have to default.

Emily Madere: Yeah, that was like that was like, one sided.

Matt Lescault: I Now we say now you both know that [00:03:00] if he's in Nashville, that's the number one bachelorette destination in the United States.

Emily Madere: Okay. Okay. I actually have some some insight on this one. So I'm going on a bachelorette trip, and it was between Nashville and Austin. We chose Austin, but I'll be gone next week. Okay.

Matt Lescault: Okay. Well, I did my bachelor party in Nashville because I figured it was the number one Bachelorette that would be the right place to go. So that is where I went for my bachelor party, which I thought you. [00:03:30]

Doug Lewis: Were going to hit the trifecta with the Bachelorette location. So Nashville, Austin and Miami, those seem to be my wife has gone through a slew of them over the last decade, and it's always one of those three cities every single time, like a broken record. Um, but specifically Nashville? Yes, just just groups of of bridal parties, just everywhere you look. And they're all well behaved and, you know, having a good time responsibly. All that fun stuff too.

Matt Lescault: So now I know you've never actually gone out in Nashville and you're just hanging [00:04:00] out at the conference.

Doug Lewis: Yep. I never leave the conference. My my my hotel room. My one wing of this hotel room. That seems to just keep going. I'd love to show you, but it keeps going nonetheless. So conferences. Um, we're going to draw some. I want to kind of flip flip back a little bit. If it's alright with you guys to draw some from the last main Sage conference, some of the content that came through there. Um, some of the stuff that Aaron Harris was talking about coming up this year, you know, release dates, all this crazy stuff. A lot of it's really centered around, like AI, all that cool stuff. But [00:04:30] I wanted to hit some, some of the more. I'll call it current pieces. As of this recording that Sage is up to, um, what they're trying to roll out, what's going well, what's not going well, kind of where, where the industry is rolling. And then, of course, the big gorilla in the room that everyone seems to Tehran artificial intelligence AI where we think that's going to go, how Sage is trying to roll that out, what they're doing, all that cool stuff. So Aaron Harris for those have no clue who that is. Emily, do you want to tell people if they don't know who Aaron Harris is? [00:05:00] Who is Aaron Harris if.

Matt Lescault: They don't know? I don't know.

Emily Madere: Well, okay, I'm going to give you a shot. I'll give everyone. This is your your one shot. Take a listen to this podcast. And then after, if you don't know who Aaron Harris is, then I mean, you really there's no coming back from that. So Aaron Harris is Sage's, um, CTO, chief technology officer. Um, and he's responsible for rolling out all of these new and creative things that sage is rolling out. So I believe he came from intact. [00:05:30] And then when sage acquired intact, he obviously rolled up into sage. Um, he is probably one of the best speakers, um, that I've ever sat in on. I mean, he really takes these large accounting concepts, uh, like it has to do with AI, or it has to do with him building this technology, and he dumps it down in a way I think is just understandable for everybody. Um, but, Matt, you were there. Las Vegas. So what were your thoughts on that?

Matt Lescault: Well, you know, I'm taking a [00:06:00] quick step back and you know, I don't I'm not going to fanboy too much on it. But Aaron Harris is actually, I think like number five or he was he was one of the first employees of intact. And he built the code that is intact. In fact, I think there's still something like 10 to 15% of intact code. That was his original code that's still in the product today. And he was really the driving force around it with, with Dan Miller. Uh, and I don't want to take anything [00:06:30] away from from that side of, uh, side of the house, you know, but it's a testament that Sage purchases intact. Aaron Harris is the CIO, CTO of of intact. But then this global company, Sage right now, I think 2.6 billion in revenue, $4 billion valuation elevated him right into the global CTO role because of his knowledge, skill set and understanding of [00:07:00] the entire ecosystem that is finance software. And you're absolutely you're absolutely right, Emily. I mean, you're talking about a guy that just he can deliver complex information around technology in a way that us measly accountants can understand it. Uh, and that's that's special. And, you know, it's we we need to know how to communicate to our [00:07:30] customers. We need to know how to to deliver this information. And we get an opportunity to, uh, to hear it from him and use that same type of delivery ourselves. So. Absolutely.

Doug Lewis: And there was a bit of a fanboy. But sure, you're right.

Matt Lescault: You know.

Doug Lewis: Yeah, it was kind of fanboy.

Matt Lescault: That's okay.

Emily Madere: I'll get you his autograph.

Matt Lescault: Oh, hey, I did the, uh, The 2024 financial trends with him and one of the partners at PwC. So I forgot, you [00:08:00] know, I get to I get to have those moments.

Doug Lewis: They thought they were getting a different Matt Lesko at the time. He just showed up there like this guy, okay, whatever. And then they just they just rolled with it. But nonetheless, Emily, anything that really kind of stood out to you from his last, I'll call it major kind of public address. Um, you know, at that conference.

Emily Madere: Yeah, he, he kind of put out there. Sage a strategy around AI, and it all has to do around the idea of, of continuous. So continuous counting, [00:08:30] continuous assurance and continuous insights. Um, so what kind of Sage strategy is around this is giving accounting teams finance team the ability to to be continuous. So continuously closing. So putting AI solutions into intacct to where you're not having to wait till the end of the month to close your books, you can always be on top of that. Um, Continuous assurance. So making sure you know all of your data in in your accounting solution is correct. Because [00:09:00] as you know, Aaron Harris mentioned as accountants, that is a number one priority. Your books have to balance.

Matt Lescault: His big statement is and Emily said it the continuous close. Now let's talk about what that means. The concept that Aaron is delivering out there is that you're not closing at the end of a month or the end of a quarter. You're continuously on a day to day basis, closing your books in a way that you have on demand information [00:09:30] readily available to your organization to make decisions on today's information today. And that's what Continuous Close is all about. And that's what the power of I. What the power of delivering from a software perspective, how we change this landscape and how we change being business owners and being business decision makers on a consistent basis. Um, and the first time I heard the continuous [00:10:00] close conversation, I was a little skeptical. Honestly, I was a little skeptical because we were we've always been trained. We're going to do a monthly reconciliation. We're going to work. You know, we're do our work papers against our prepaids. We're going to do this. And it happens at that moment. And it sort of flipped on its head the concept of what we do as accounting professionals. But if you really take a step back and think about what he's talking about, he's talking [00:10:30] about the competitive advantage in making your organization different or a differential than your than your competition.

Doug Lewis: And it's amazing that we haven't gotten to this point yet with all the software, the software advancements we've had over the past decade, um, to be able to have that. But I've heard continuous close and rolling close kind of Used interchangeably. Is that is that a safe assumption? Do you guys think?

Matt Lescault: I would think I've actually haven't heard the rolling close as much. Um, it's [00:11:00] so I don't I don't have as much insight from that side, but I would make the assumption that it's pretty, uh, pretty similar. Mhm.

Emily Madere: Yeah, I would too. Yeah.

Doug Lewis: And one, one piece that really stood out when he's, when Aaron Harris was going over there, the continuous close concept and how they're approaching it with some of the machine learning and artificial intelligence breakthroughs that they're having. Um, I have a just a garbage memory, but this really kind of stood out to me for whatever reason. It kind of stuck with me in the sense that they pulled a thousand finance [00:11:30] leaders, and the most common response they got is 25% of our entire team's time goes towards the close, working towards that close. Yeah. So if you can free up 25% more time from your your finance team to focus on other areas to drive revenue or increase efficiencies, you know, outside of that close. I mean, what, you know, what could that do for for the bottom line of business or from a growth perspective for that business that was that was something that really kind of stuck with me.

Matt Lescault: Think [00:12:00] about the mid market there. You know, a four person finance team is a pretty, pretty good average. If you look at your upper SMB lower mid market organization. And if you talk about 25%, you're talking about one full headcount that's impactful. Now I you know, everybody gets worried about talking about accountants. You know, AI is going to take jobs away and everything else. But if we look at the if we look at the stats, we're talking about 50%. Or maybe it's more than that. I used to know these stats right off [00:12:30] the top of my head, but 50% of CPAs are going to retire in the next ten years or something like that, where we're going to have a labor shortage anyway. We have to fill that gap from a technology perspective. Um, and so, yeah, it's it's you hit it, Doug. Well, then.

Emily Madere: I also think you have to, you know, it's hard to quantify in dollar values. Like how much I can help because, like, you don't realize it until after your 3 or 4 years down the road. But I think it's important from an investment perspective, [00:13:00] um, having AI in a solution and saving yourself, you know, 25%, whatever that statistic was, Matt will pay for the software too, because we have to remember Sage Intacct is a robust mid market solution. So having the expectations that it's going to be a little bit more than a QuickBooks or a Xero needs to be in the equation.

Matt Lescault: Well, let's I mean let's talk about some of the fear around AI. You know. Ai is here. There's no getting away from it. We see ChatGPT. We see what ChatGPT [00:13:30] can do just from a from a. My marketing team likes to call it their intern. You know, they'll throw in a little question and it spits out something. They use that. But that's just the tip of the iceberg of what AI can produce and where we're going. Now we have two choices as an industry, and it's not just our industry. It's not just accountants, but we have two choices. We can stick our head in the sand, in the mud and try to avoid what is coming. Or we can embrace the reality of what artificial [00:14:00] intelligence is going to bring to us. And if we take a step back and we embrace that technology, it can actually empower us as consultants, as solution providers, as professionals to provide that much better of a service to our clients, that much better of a service to our organizations and deliver. Remember, we all talked about Cass. You know, I know we have the acronym thing going on, but when we talk about client advisory [00:14:30] services, the key word there is advisory. We want to produce high level information to our client base, to our stakeholders that matter. And if we're not embracing the technology that's coming through the door, we're not doing that. We're not delivering those services.

Doug Lewis: No, I agree. And by the way, I go to a lot of these conferences, talk to a lot of firms. There are some people that are predicting this end all be all. We're never going to need accountants [00:15:00] again. Thing that couldn't be further off base from what's actually playing out in reality. The need for for human capital and intelligent professionals is never going to decrease in this profession. So when we talk about like AI and all this, it's not it's not like iRobot or, you know, the Terminator movies or these things where AI turns on the world and then, you know, we're serving the robots. That's never going to be that way. And something that I don't know how it's going to play out. Um, but another thing that Aaron Harris [00:15:30] mentioned, kind of in that, in that same I don't want to say it's a monologue, but that same session that he delivered was that they're working with Sam Altman, who founded, you know, OpenAI and ChatGPT, to form the AI Ethics Oversight Board or AI Ethics Committee or something along those lines to make sure that if and when not only. Sage, but other technology organizations are rolling out true artificial intelligence products that are backed by machine learning and built the proper way that they're doing it in a safe and ethical way [00:16:00] to make sure that obviously nothing, nothing crazy happens. Um, and I found that kind of interesting. I thought that was a pretty big name drop. Um, which I love. Name drops. That's fun. So you you.

Emily Madere: You bring up a good point. Um, because at the conference, he he specifically mentioned, I forget the number. Um, but they put more patents on, um, having anti hallucinogenic AI in Sage Intacct because, right, as accountants, the data needs to be correct.

Matt Lescault: Well, you know, there's [00:16:30] a, there's a whole office within Sage that's run under the public affairs side that is working with Congress and Senate to talk about ethical AI and putting, uh, certifications in place for organizations that use AI to make sure that it is being done in a way that. And, you know, I don't get too crazy here. You know, we're just talking about approaching things in a sustainable way in which we, as consumers of products, can trust the product that we're consuming. [00:17:00] And I know that sounds, you know, in a silly way to say it, but if we go back and I'm not I'm not interested in a political conversation here or anything else. But when we talk about AI generated photos and those things, uh, driving decision making around how we vote and how we decide from from our political side of things, and we're getting false information that is driving those decisions. That's a scary place to be. And that's not any different than the on a smaller scale [00:17:30] when it comes to company ABC using it. And we don't want to see that in our industry, in any industry. We want we deserve as people to be able to rely on, on the information that we're getting as true and accurate and in our best interest, and not in somebody else's best interest. And that's the biggest fear that there is when it comes to AI. That's the biggest concern that [00:18:00] there is. And I'm really proud of Sage for having that type of insight to go and have those conversations at the highest level, to push on what that means for us as an industry, to be a leader in that component. I'm sure Intuit's doing some of the same stuff. I'm not. Obviously I'm not as as in tune with what they're what they're doing, but that that, for me, is one of one of the many reasons that I am so aligned with what Sage is [00:18:30] as an organization. Yeah, that was beautiful.

Doug Lewis: Yeah, beautiful. Look at that. That's the first time anyone said anything you've done is beautiful. Congratulations, Doug.

Matt Lescault: Yeah. You know, you like to give me crap quite often, but I figured I had to give you something that you just like, you. You're speechless, and I. And I appreciate that.

Doug Lewis: I've never been speechless in my life. Um. Don't I know it? My wife will attest to that as well. Um, but you mentioned some good, especially, you know, when we're talking about, like, ethics and reliable data and all this fun stuff. It's one thing to utilize [00:19:00] artificial intelligence in, like a, a marketing format or something that is, you know, not as as crucial as, you know, financial services is. But, you know, artificial intelligence is kind of this big catchall umbrella that a lot of people are just throwing out there right now. But Sage is actually implementing some of these pieces that are building their artificial intelligence tools. Um, you know, some of the more common ones. Emily, this is kind of more up your zone, I think. But, you know, we look at some of the things that are actually in play right now, like the, the, the GL outlier detector, which we've gone over GL, [00:19:30] so I don't have to hit that. Are you seeing people utilize that type of tool. First off what is that. Is that something that you're you're seeing implemented day in and day out or. Yeah.

Emily Madere: Yeah. So um GL outlier detection has been out for a couple of years now. It's not necessarily new to Sage, but it uses AI and machine learning to actually go inside all of your different journal entries and, you know, view if you accidentally fat fingered an additional zero in your rent. Um, it's [00:20:00] able to catch that as it happens. So you're not waiting until the end of the month to catch that. Um, and then, you know, it sits for 30 days in your accounting solution.

Matt Lescault: You know.

Matt Lescault: The whole concept there with the outlier is to find abnormalities within the data set to help identify or help you identify as the user what potentially might be a inaccurate entry. Now I also look [00:20:30] at it as potentially, and maybe we can convince Aaron at some time to come onto our podcast. But I don't think that we, uh, we have enough clout yet. But I think it also potentially is a foundational component of AI. When it comes to Sage, because that's data collecting, AI is all about data. Without data, it doesn't really work. And by having that gleyre and if you're in Sage Intacct, you can turn it on or turn it off, and I suggest everybody turn it on. But the more information [00:21:00] going into the AI product, the more data is being developed and information can come back to us as users of Sage Intacct. And so my assumption and I have no basis of saying this, but my assumption has is that that GL outlier component of AI is what is what is going to allow for the rest of the iteration of AI into the product [00:21:30] to be successful, because it is the baseline, it sees everything that makes sense.

Doug Lewis: It does. And Emily, your example of if you're fat fingered an extra zero and it'll catch it and bring it to your attention, I think that's kind of the point of the whole ethics around artificial intelligence, especially in the financial services world, is it's going to find abnormalities, bring them to your attention. But ultimately you are going to have to choose what to do with that information. And I don't think we're at the point yet where it's going to both identify abnormalities and try [00:22:00] to fix it on its own without any human, you know, intervention or interaction. Um, there's there's a lot, of, lot of kind of goofy things going on in that world, but I don't think we're quite there yet. But that's just one example of the stuff they're doing. I know, like AP automation is another kind of big one, um, that we're seeing out there and play mad. Is that something that you deal with at all?

Matt Lescault: I can guarantee you that every one of us partners have have dealt with AP automation. It's a I don't want to say it's a brand new, but it's a newer module [00:22:30] within what Sage is doing. I think it came out of did they come out? Emily did come out of the lockstep acquisition or was that separate?

Emily Madere: I think it was separate. But it is recently, I would say probably within the last year.

Matt Lescault: Yeah.

Matt Lescault: And it really marries the concept of kind of like what a Bill.com or a ramp does, but also brings it into the Po capability of intact with artificial intelligence that it learns how the coding happens. So the same vendor keeps happening [00:23:00] the same. You know, it's going to pre code, but the human intervention is the important part. Right Doug. You know it's not going to sit there and just automatically push it through without anybody saying hey yes. But instead of us being the submitter the enter and the approver, it allows us to be just the approver. And that takes away multiple steps. Sorry, Emily. Go ahead.

Emily Madere: No, I'm saying the interesting thing, at least to me about AP automation, is it scans Sage Intacct, scans millions and millions of AP bills a day. And it goes into this, [00:23:30] I call it in my brain, like a central file room, if you will, and it accumulates. You know, if it gets 50 million AT&T bills, then it knows how to code AT&T bills. Um, so that one's probably going to be most likely right now if you get an invoice from a Joe Schmo down the road. Um, it would probably have a hard time, you know, coding that one. Um, but I say all this to say is, um, AP automation inside of Sage Intacct is not HIPAA compliant. And I think that's an important piece of it. I think it will be one day, but since it does have that central [00:24:00] database, a central file room, it can't be HIPAA compliant.

Matt Lescault: Well.

Matt Lescault: I think the key here is even with the Joe Schmo, if you use Joe Schmo vendor consistently, it will learn.

Emily Madere: It will, it will.

Matt Lescault: And it only takes three, four, five of the same vendor bills to come to the system for it to learn. And that's that's really the power that you're talking about with it. So I we're [00:24:30] seeing the AP automation module with Intacct being bought more and more frequently. Uh, on every deal. And it's you know, I probably would say that a couple of years ago when we started, uh, when it came out, it was like one out of ten, one out of 20 deals, we'd see it. And now it's being talked about in every deal and probably purchased in 50% of the deals. Easy.

Doug Lewis: Now, are you finding that at a certain level of, of transaction [00:25:00] or like a certain market or just like you're talking agnostically across everything.

Matt Lescault: Across across everything? Because it is it is priced in a way that is transactional. So if you only do a small amount, you're only paying a small amount. If you do a large amount, you're paying a larger amount. It is a transactional component. Now what I'm interested in, and I haven't followed too much, is that there was this whole concept that, uh, Aaron Harris had around Sage network. Now I don't want to get [00:25:30] I don't want to get things mixed up. There's the idea of Sage network, which is a concept of an API platform that plugs into every Sage product forget intact, but across the board you can integrate any third party product into this one. Sage network and it flows into any of their products. But I remember there being talk about maybe they didn't call it Sage network, but the concept that we were going to have connected vendors that if you if if your vendors wanted to get onto [00:26:00] this Sage network, they would then be a trusted, a trusted partner within this within the ecosystem. And now payments and information almost like EDI, um, electronic electronic document interface, uh, is is all built into that process, which is a you know, when I heard that was in my mind was such a, a huge endeavor and I [00:26:30] didn't know how it was going to how it was going to pan out or if it's panned out. But it was it was one of those things like, great idea. How are you ever going to get all the vendors out there to be working in lockstep with this.

Emily Madere: So but I think, I think I have some insights on this. So I recently I'm doing a joint sales process with Intact and Coupa. I think Coupa has sort of, sort of figured that out. So for you. Who's Coupa don't know. Yeah. Coupa does, um, inventory, procurement, purchasing. It's a very robust system. [00:27:00] Um, so it actually integrates into Sage Intacct. And I think that they have a portal, a network that they have with different vendors like Medline, Office Depot, whoever it may be. And they're actually able to accomplish this.

Matt Lescault: You know.

Matt Lescault: We have to talk offline because, you know, from an inventory perspective, there's a lot of players, but not a lot of great options, like the number one player on the inventory space. And this is completely sidebar was like Q stock, but the price was, you know, pushed them out of the kind of [00:27:30] SMB to small mid market. And a lot of times and it's been a struggle that we've had as implementation partners.

Matt Lescault: To.

Matt Lescault: To to find the right balance at times. Now when it's the right size company. Q stock kills it. But where's that. Where's that other program. And so Emily, maybe not on this episode, but we should we should have a little bit more of a conversation there.

Emily Madere: Yeah. Yeah. I'm a big fan of Coupa.

Matt Lescault: Okay.

Doug Lewis: So we're seeing Sage kind of actually implement [00:28:00] some of these machine learning artificial intelligence tools that they're building other stuff off of. I know, Matt, you went into detail before about the automatic bank feeds, so we don't have to hit that in too much detail. But I mean, you look at those three examples alone, the geo outlier, you know, AP automation, automatic bank feeds. This is the stuff they've been working on. This isn't new, but they're now starting to get to a point where they can utilize all these data sets. They're trying to roll out kind of some new, new and exciting tools. Um, Sage Copilot was another big, big [00:28:30] topic of discussion, kind of has been for the last couple of months from everything I'm seeing. Emily, again, I'd be shocked if people don't know anything about Sage copilot at this stage in the game, but can you explain to me? I know, use your imagination as if I know nothing. What is Sage copilot?

Emily Madere: Yeah. No problem. Um. Sage copilot is Sage's built in assistant AI. Um. And it's able to notify the end user. Um. Hey, you [00:29:00] have an abnormality here or. Hey, you recently paid off this bill. Maybe here's an area where you might want to revisit or take a look at this chart that AI generated that you might be interested in based on the number of customers you have. So it's an it's an AI tool that's able to bring attention to different areas where you may not have noticed in the past. It's not yet in Sage Intacct. I think they're still working out some kinks, but I think it is coming soon.

Matt Lescault: I think it's an early adopter. I think that you [00:29:30] can request to be part of the early adopter program individually, as clients or as firms you can. So I think it is deployed, but not in what we call publicly.

Doug Lewis: Yeah.

Matt Lescault: Yeah.

Matt Lescault: Well, Sage, like many organizations kind of go into your early adopter and then then things get released into what we call general general acceptance. And we're just not there yet. Um, but it would surprise me if we're not there pretty soon. [00:30:00] Uh, on the product. Yeah.

Doug Lewis: Have you guys seen any kind of ballpark release goals, timelines, dates, anything like that? Or is it all kind of up in the air? Still with copilot?

Matt Lescault: I'm not sure. Of course. You know, the, uh. What would we be in here? Third quarter, third quarter release notes just came out. We'll be doing an episode about those at some point here soon, and there may be some talk there. Um, I haven't had a chance to, like, dive into exactly what was distributed from those release notes. I [00:30:30] know that, uh, I know that it's a major push for Sage on the copilot side. I also think that it's in partnership with Microsoft. I'm pretty sure the copilot is a Microsoft. Uh, in a I don't want to call it integration, but a Microsoft partnership in which, uh, it was driven from Microsoft's, I think, Copilot.

Doug Lewis: Yeah, they have their own. They are literally copilot. So yeah, just essentially just feeding off that backbone [00:31:00] from what I can tell. I don't know, I'm an idiot, so who knows? Well, if you.

Matt Lescault: If you saw it, there was an announcement of a much deeper, I shouldn't say much deeper, but a increased partnership with Microsoft. I think we saw Mark Hickman mention something about this. And some of the people out of the Global Partnership offices talk about sort of where, where it's going from a, uh, from, uh, from that Microsoft partnership with, uh, with Sage. So, um, there continues to be heavy investment there.

Doug Lewis: And people [00:31:30] forget Microsoft's been doing this for decades now because you guys remember when it might be dating myself a little bit? Remember when you log into a Microsoft product and you got the little, little cliff comes up the little paperclip? It's like, hey, are you trying to write a thank you letter? Hey, are you trying to write a resume or whatever? And it gives you all these little recommendations. So they've been they've been they've been in the game for a while now. And I hope Sage has a nice little avatar. Um, I like that because that would just be hilarious to see from my perspective. [00:32:00] But I think they do.

Matt Lescault: I think they do have a little copilot avatar people.

Matt Lescault: Yeah. Yeah.

Doug Lewis: Is it as cool as the little Clippy used to be back in the day? Clippy.

Emily Madere: Clippy is top tier.

Matt Lescault: Yeah.

Doug Lewis: That was that was the original people. That was the OG. People. People forget about him, but nonetheless. So we can we can start to wind down because, you know, there's so much, so much garbage talk out there about artificial intelligence that people don't need to hear too much more [00:32:30] of it. But, Emily, I'll shoot it over to you. So just big picture artificial intelligence in the accounting sector. Sage not Sage whatever. What do you think is really going to happen in the next one year? Three years? Five years?

Emily Madere: Oh, okay. So I think we're going to see an increased adoption of AI across the board, whether that's accounting, finance, marketing, whatever it may look like. I think we're going to see more and more companies [00:33:00] come out with anti hallucinogenic AI because right. You can go on Facebook and you can see pictures of of Jesus holding up a sign that says, I fought in the military with like 6000 dogs next to him. And you still have people commenting that was fake. Yeah, that was fake. Yeah. They didn't know that was fake.

Matt Lescault: Um, go back to.

Matt Lescault: Church, Doug.

Matt Lescault: Yeah.

Emily Madere: Um, I think I literally saw that one today, and I think my grandmother commented on it. That's that's why I'm bringing it up. But we're going to [00:33:30] see a lot more adoption. We're going to see a lot more anti hallucinogenic patents. Things come out. I don't think people need to be scared of. I think embrace it. And I think I'm going to take a quote from Aaron Harris here. He said something along the lines of you're not going to be replaced by AI, but you're going to be replaced by someone who knows how to use AI better than you.

Matt Lescault: He does like that. Like that. He does like that line. What's a good.

Doug Lewis: Line? You know it's not broke. Don't fix it, Matt. It's pie in the sky here. You know, artificial [00:34:00] intelligence in the accounting world. One year, three years, five years. What? What are you seeing?

Matt Lescault: I think where I'm going to start here is I'm going to say is that we're in kind of the phase of AI in which everybody's running to try to to figure it out. So your, your big four are deeply invested in their own AI products. But but you go downstream, you have startups, you have everybody is trying to figure out to be the next big thing. And so I would say [00:34:30] the next three years, we're going to see a lot of players come in. We're going to see a lot of players come out and there's going to be it's going to create disruption within the marketplace just from a what's the right adoption? We're not going to know. Think about the.com era. Let's think about when, when when you had the big spike of dot coms. And then they all kind of crashed. You know in the 90s. I think you're going to see some of that happen from an AI perspective because there's there there is so much money to be seen in [00:35:00] it, but we don't know which one is going to do it. Right, right. I mean, we're, we're we're waiting to see it in a, in a major way. If we look at the 3 to 5 year spectrum, we're going to have the people that select to embrace and are the leaders within the industry. And we're going to see the people that don't embrace and probably self-select out of it. And that's we're going to see a lot of the retirement within our or within our industry. Um, and it probably [00:35:30] Will.

Matt Lescault: Will.

Matt Lescault: See a reduction in age, retirement. And what I mean by that is we have a lot of accountants, a lot of CPAs that stick in the workforce for a longer period of time than a lot of other industries. One is the work is there, um, you know, two is the pay continues to increase. Uh, three is I think it's a lot like, what the heck am I going to do after after this? Um, but I think as A.I. comes in and disrupts that [00:36:00] sort of normalcy of industry and how you approach the work, you're going to see people decide, this isn't for me. That's going to put pressure on the industry and a whole to be able to to adapt to a smaller, uh, group of, uh, of professionals and deliver a, a, a, a, I want to say higher, but that's not the right word to deliver, um, services that meet the expectations of [00:36:30] the of the marketplace. So it's going to be an interesting it's going to be an interesting time. Um, and Doug, I'm going to throw it back to you. I mean, you're in the M&A space. I think you're seeing this roll up happen right now. And it has a lot to do with, uh, with this technology push.

Doug Lewis: It does. Um, and kind of where I'm seeing this thing going, honestly. You know, when I, in the accounting profession as a whole, like you said, there's going to be a flood of players. They're already here. Everyone's trying to figure out how to make, you know, a mass market appeal product that can truly be integrated into firms [00:37:00] overnight. I don't think anyone's quite there yet with any of these tools, at least, that are publicly available right now. But as more and more players come in, I think some of these players are going to figure out different pieces of this puzzle. And then ultimately looking at merger or acquisition options in that space. Someone's going to bring it together and bundle the first publicly available for all accounting firms out there tool that's truly artificial intelligence, truly, truly backed and works with all these different specialties [00:37:30] kind of plugged into one piece. I think that's where it's going to go. There's gonna be a lot of consolidation, um, in that sector, um, because people are going to again, figure out different pieces at different times on how to actually truly roll this out into firms. Um, so we'll see a bunch of experts come together and form something that's kind of what I'm predicting in the next 12 months. But God knows if I if I can predict the next 12 months, I wouldn't be on this conversation with you guys. Let's put it that way.

Matt Lescault: You'd be going to Vegas. So hot off the presses. I don't know if either of you saw it. Maybe Doug, you were involved [00:38:00] in it, but who saw Cherry Beckert acquire Kerr?

Doug Lewis: Never. Never heard of it. Wouldn't wouldn't know what you're talking about.

Matt Lescault: So really, I'm just messing with you. Believe me.

Doug Lewis: All these things that you know about, I've known about for a week.

Matt Lescault: Well, why didn't you come and say something?

Matt Lescault: I don't.

Doug Lewis: Like getting sued, so.

Matt Lescault: I'm keeping my mouth shut. How many times have you been. Oh, I.

Doug Lewis: Never, never. And if anyone's asking me, I've got great lawyers for are wondering or thinking about it. I [00:38:30] got I got phenomenal, I got a stable of lawyers in the, in the east wing of my hotel room. No, I think it's going to be exciting to see how this plays out. I think we're just so early in the process with AI in the accounting world that it's going to be pretty wild, but we'll we'll hit that again down the road once we actually see some of this play out. And copilot Sage copilot does roll out on a wider scale to see how that kind of implements some of these businesses. So that'll be cool. Um, all right. I gotta cap it here now with something that's just truly, truly horrible. No, no, hold on.

Matt Lescault: I, [00:39:00] I'm going to give you something because you have to beat me while you're in Nash Vegas. I flew into Cleveland on Saturday night. I get in about 11 p.m.. I'm hungry. I find the only bar restaurant that I can find close to where I'm staying, and I end up in a conversation with one of the cast members from Michael Jackson The Musical. Well, I have to admit, I was a huge Michael Jackson fan as a as a as a kid. Um, he's [00:39:30] still.

Doug Lewis: Alive, but. Sure. Go ahead.

Matt Lescault: Yeah, yeah.

Matt Lescault: See, you're believing that AI generated pictures again. You know.

Matt Lescault: I saw a video.

Doug Lewis: Of him yesterday.

Matt Lescault: So anyway, he goes, oh, the whole cast is over at this other bar. You want to come? So we go and meet the cast. Michael Jackson, the musical. They convince us to buy tickets. So I go and I see Michael Jackson the Musical on Sunday night to find out it was their closing night, and they're moving from Cleveland to DC. And I could have seen this at home and not while [00:40:00] I was at a conference.

Matt Lescault: So it was a great show. Yeah. No, you know what to expect.

Doug Lewis: I don't know. We'll see what the next day.

Doug Lewis: Or two brings my way. I don't know, we'll see if I can top that. That's a that's a tall order, but we'll see. You know.

Matt Lescault: I just thought nonetheless a.

Matt Lescault: Little fun story.

Doug Lewis: No, that's. You don't hear that one. Every day I.

Matt Lescault: Go, oh.

Matt Lescault: I got one other thing. Did did you guys see on LinkedIn that Nick Rediger, who is a partner rep at uh at Sage in the sep. [00:40:30] The Sage Intacct Accounting partners program. He suggested what we should do with the money from the acronym game.

Emily Madere: Oh, my gosh, I didn't see that. What do we.

Matt Lescault: Got?

Matt Lescault: He suggested that we should donate it through Sage Foundation, which I thought was an amazing idea. I know, I know, we're not giving it to a listener, but we might not have enough listeners to make it fair anyway at this point, but I thought it was a great idea. Um, I had, uh, I had, uh, one [00:41:00] of the members of my team on the marketing team tag in Sage Foundation, and, uh, a guy by the name of Will Kaufman at Sage who ran Sage Foundation to see if we couldn't get them to to to have a little bit of fun and maybe we can bring them on to the show.

Emily Madere: Oh. That's lovely. I think they do a match too. I think during certain times of the year they do matches.

Matt Lescault: Yeah.

Matt Lescault: No, they, they, they do a lot of interesting stuff. We did a whole, uh, Sage Foundation event. Virtual event with our with [00:41:30] our staff. That was it's called chimpanzee. Like actually like a chimpanzee but chimpanzee. And what you do is you get like ten second to 32nd clips, um, that are videos or cameras that are in, uh, in the African forest. Uh, and you identify what animals are walking as part of research. And it was a really great time for the, for the team.

Matt Lescault: So that was.

Doug Lewis: The story today. And I love [00:42:00] it.

Matt Lescault: I love it I'm you need to get on.

Doug Lewis: The road more often. How about that.

Matt Lescault: Yeah I'm on.

Matt Lescault: The road way too much.

Matt Lescault: So we'll do some more traveling.

Doug Lewis: Met Emily and by the way, if you were on the road today, this would have been the trifecta. But I.

Emily Madere: Know. No, not on the road, inside, inside my house, watching my dogs sleep on their bed.

Matt Lescault: They are.

Matt Lescault: They are very quiet. My dog would be barking the whole time.

Emily Madere: Yeah, well, they're so interested in learning about Sage Intacct and I, which I have to say something. So when? When I was planning out this episode, I made a joke and and Andrew [00:42:30] said, you know, you got to share it on the show. I said, you can't spell. You can't spell Sage Intacct without I.

Matt Lescault: Oh, I like it. Which is true.

Emily Madere: Which is true. But he he didn't think it was funny.

Matt Lescault: That I don't know what to say. I we'll have to talk to Andrew.

Matt Lescault: Yeah, I love it.

Doug Lewis: And for those who have no clue who Andrew is, Andrew does a lot of the prep work for this, uh, this shindig behind the scenes. So, uh, he's he actually makes this, uh, makes this world go round in the unofficial [00:43:00] Sage Intacct podcast. But to cap it here, I'm gonna leave you two with just a real gem. All right. Just just a gem here. Yeah, it's it's a good one. Yeah. That's it, that's it. I trademarked that, actually. So why aren't dogs good dancers?

Matt Lescault: They have two left feet.

Doug Lewis: Damn, you nailed it. And I love.

Matt Lescault: It. Is that the first.

Doug Lewis: One you've gotten?

Matt Lescault: I know I got the I got the one where you talked about the engineers. Like how many [00:43:30] engineers did it take to screw in a light bulb or something? I said none.

Doug Lewis: Yeah, but you didn't know the answer. You were just guessing. You didn't know the answer.

Matt Lescault: For that one.

Doug Lewis: Fair, fair. You didn't know. I love that, all right, I'm gonna dig deeper. I'm gonna make it harder for you. I'm going to make the next one. Good. But I like that one. I thought that was fun.

Matt Lescault: That was good. That was.

Matt Lescault: Good. That was good.

Doug Lewis: What are you going to do? Well, we can wrap it there. Thanks for listening, guys. We will talk to you next week. I think we're actually going to be taking are we going to be taking some audience questions from not mistaken on the next episode? That's the plan.

Emily Madere: Don't give too much of a. [00:44:00]

Doug Lewis: Sneak peek, I think. I think that's the plan. We're going we're going live. We're getting the actual raw feedback, so that'll be fun. Oh, boy. We can we can tell people that, you know, hey, we don't care what you think. So that'll be fun. But nonetheless, thanks for joining me guys today. Look forward to talking again soon.

Matt Lescault: Bye. Awesome. Thanks.