Success story highlights
Challenge: The California transportation authority struggled to process invoices quickly. They had too many invoices and relied on manual work, which slowed things down and delayed payments.
Solution: To fix the problem, CAI used AI tools, including UiPath Robots and Microsoft Azure AI. These tools for AI invoice processing helped automate the work, making the accounts payable process faster and easier.
Results:
- 64% faster: Processing invoices took much less time
- 95% accurate: AI tools checked invoices with almost perfect accuracy
- 20 hours saved weekly: Staff had more time for other tasks
A California transportation authority is the group responsible for transit projects, programs, and services that impact residents, as well as commuters and tourists in the county. Bus and rail lines, rideshares, environmental programs, active transportation, express lanes, and freeways all fall under their care.
This California transportation authority leadership was interested in what automation could achieve in the public sector. With other automation projects already successful, the transportation authority collaborated with CAI to discuss more challenging automation and artificial intelligence (AI) service use cases. They decided to utilize AI invoice processing for the accounts payable workstream. By implementing these solutions, one of the things they hoped to discover is how AI reduces invoice processing time from days to hours.
The drag of manual transportation invoice processing
The California transportation authority receives a digital portfolio from their vendors, which includes things like detailed documentation about project information, email correspondence, and artifacts. While each of these documents is important to a complete project portfolio, the finance team was struggling with how much time transportation invoice processing took. They had to print, sort, and stamp the invoice pages and reassemble the portfolios. Then, they had to archive, store, and maintain the paper records for each project. This one workflow required a dedicated employee, plus a backup associate for peak times, and a significant amount of paper and ink.
Alleviating the strain this process created for staff was a top priority for the accounting operations team. They immediately identified this opportunity to improve this process with AI and automation. They were well versed in automation, having already seen the positive impact it can have in other areas of finance.
“Implementing AI invoice processing has been a game-changer for our team. It saves us 20 hours of staff time each week. It also enables our staff to focus on more important tasks, such as improving internal controls in other areas of the department and cleaning up aging accounts. Automation is revolutionizing our accounts payable team by enabling us to process invoices quicker, more cost-effectively, and with greater accuracy. [It has] enhanced our overall efficiency and financial management.”
The IT management teams at the transportation authority focused on moving forward with automation. They wanted to find the right partner to help build their transportation invoice processing program from the ground up. CAI, a global professional services organization with lots of experience in automation development, was selected for this sizeable task. With the help of the CAI team, they planned to apply more modern processes with the introduction of AI invoice processing.
AI invoice processing and UiPath integration
CAI is experienced in implementing invoice processing automations for clients in both the commercial and public sector. Because of this, there was also already a firm understanding that no two accounts payable processes are identical. The California transportation authority's process was unique and required a unique solution. To meet this need, CAI utilized their strong partnership with UiPath. This best-in-class automation platform also features a helpful execution agent, UiPath Robots.
The CAI team collaborated with multiple finance team members to understand the business processes. Identifying and removing obstacles (and streamlining the future transportation invoice processing) was top of mind. Upholding trustworthy AI principles was also a huge focus. Using UiPath’s Action Center, the CAI team made sure planning data was accurate and maintained open communication with relevant team members in the transportation authority. This helped to keep humans in the loop when necessary. The UiPath Action Center also proved to be a great way to gain confidence from finance stakeholders and leaders within the organization.
Together with members of the transportation authority's technical and finance team, CAI designed and developed an innovative, modern solution. This solution included using UiPath Robots, Microsoft Azure AI, and UiPath Document Understanding to perform AI invoice processing and management activities. The document extraction AI model performed with 95% accuracy overall, leaving only the occasional need for human help.
Bringing communication and transparency to accounts payable
Introducing AI can be concerning to employees who are new to these technologies. To address this, the transportation authority leaders were transparent about the details of the AI invoice processing with their colleagues in IT and finance. Throughout the project, IT management communicated the vision, goals, and technology boundaries clearly to employees and stakeholders. They also asked for feedback and encouraged suggestions from individual contributors.
The CAI team offered implementation options that complemented this approach. This ensured easy interactions between finance team members and the teams working on the AI invoice processing solution. The successful adoption of the automated invoice process is a direct result of the leadership and open communication of these teams.
Efficiency improvements through AI invoice processing automation
From the beginning, it was clear that AI and automation solutions are not meant to eliminate staff at the transportation authority. Instead, they are meant to improve workflows and ensure the people behind the projects are not burned out. The implementation of AI invoice processing and automation provided a powerful morale and efficiency boost to the accounts payable team.
It might not be immediately obvious how AI reduces invoice processing time from days to hours (or even minutes), but that's what was successfully accomplished here. Monitoring the invoice inbox went from being a nearly full-time position to occupying less than 30 minutes per day. The automation was so efficient it allowed the specialist assigned to transportation invoice processing to focus on more valuable projects.
Because of the solution CAI provided, vendor invoices and transportation invoice processing times decreased by 64% overall. Additional automation is planned to increase throughput in the months to come. The California transportation authority is working with the CAI team for developer training, process identification, as well as the development and implementation of hyperautomation solutions. They're also working on developing an Automation Center of Excellence that will drive innovation forward for the organization. Thanks to a partnership built on trust and shared goals, CAI and the California transportation authority teams look forward to more innovative solutions in the future.
To learn more about how CAI works with state and local agencies to implement data and AI solutions, fill out the form below.
