Basware Debuts AI-Powered Fraud Prevention Tool

Accounts payable (AP) automation company Basware has launched a new fraud/error protection solution.

AP Protect, announced Monday (April 22), is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool that helps finance teams guard against fraud, profit loss and invoice errors.

“In 2023, Basware identified 10,800 incorrect payments made by companies for supplier invoices due to duplicate payments and fraud,” the company said in a news release.

“This recovered the value of $191 million from a spend of $245 billion. On average, this prevented up to $1 million in losses for $1 billion spent by a company.”

The release also notes that CFOs are under immense pressure to protect against erroneous payments and invoice fraud, something the company argues will impact a majority of businesses each year, chiefly among AP teams.

According to the release, Basware’s tool employs more than 800 algorithms and continuous monitoring to spot potential errors, prevent overpayments, and identify internal and external fraudulent activities.

“Fraud and profit loss are keeping CFOs up at night, as they struggle to protect their organizations from the rising tide of financial risks,” said Basware CEO Jason Kurtz.

“AP Protect safeguards AP processes to remove these pressures and maintain the highest standards of financial integrity. By detecting transactions for potential errors and fraud risks during the invoicing process, money is protected from a company’s bottom line.”

As noted here earlier this month, accounts payable processes are — like many functions of a business’ back office — being impacted by AI. Combined with advancements in deep learning, computer vision and natural language processing (NLP), the technology is helping increase efficiency, accuracy and cost savings for businesses.

“With deep learning and advancements in computer vision, AP tasks are very automatable compared to where they were 10 years back — it has made a huge difference,” Krishna Janakiraman, head of engineering at Ottimate, told PYMNTS.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster spoke with Basware’s Kurtz last summer about the need for consolidation in the AP automation sector.

“There are too many players in the space right now,” he told Webster, “particularly in the enterprise segment, which is where we play. There’s got to be consolidation.”

In fact, he said, the market itself wants a single company that can provide a continuum of services and offerings, across procurement AP and invoice and accounts receivable automation while putting payments into the mix.

“We’re the best positioned to do that,” said Kurtz, “because that’s where we focus — and we have a head start in terms of the number of customers and volume … to become the 800-pound gorilla and consolidate the industry.”