Payhawk, the leading spend management platform, today announced the launch of “AI Office of the CFO,” a suite of specialised AI agents that solve finance’s biggest AI challenge: drastically increasing finance teams’ productivity while maintaining complete control over their operations.With its platform already managing companies’ transactions, policies, workflows, and master data, Payhawk is uniquely positioned to build AI Agents that deliver practical value alongside the necessary controls. These new AI agents autonomously handle operational tasks with the same careful permissions as employees, enabling organisations to implement AI with confidence. While building its in-house agentic infrastructure, Payhawk has been leveraging early-access OpenAI models to refine its AI agent technology.The company is launching the suite with its Financial Controller Agent, which will take over the tedious tasks of chasing receipts, analysing expense documents, and spotting unusual spending patterns. This marks another milestone in Payhawk’s journey to redefine financial operations, adding AI agents to its unified spend management platform.“Finance leaders know AI will have an impact on their operations, but until now, there hasn’t been a clear and practical path forward,” said Hristo Borisov, CEO of Payhawk. “We’re not just adding AI features — we’re creating a new category of purpose-built agents that transform finance operations by autonomously completing critical, time-consuming tasks.”The AI Office of the CFO suite introduces agents that elevate key functions:The Financial Controller Agent eliminates the endless back-and-forth of expense reporting. Instead of managers chasing employees for missing receipts or checking expense reports line by line, the agent automatically collects documents, sends friendly reminders when something’s missing, and flags any unusual purchases — freeing up time for more valuable work.The Procurement Agent turns complicated purchase requests into simple conversations

LONDON, April 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Payhawk, the leading spend management platform, today announced the launch of 'AI Office of the CFO,' a suite of specialised AI agents that solve finance's biggest AI challenge: drastically increasing finance teams' productivity while maintaining complete control over their operations

A robust spend culture is key to unlocking business potential, with 61% of CFOs highlighting its importance for growth, yet few have struck the right balance between autonomy and control, new research from Payhawk reveals.The research, conducted by independent research house Coleman Parkes, surveyed 1,000 finance leaders in large organisations across the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, and Spain. It sheds light on the growing gap between awareness and action when it comes to creating an efficient spend culture.While 41% of businesses are actively defining their spend culture—a clear indicator of its strategic importance—only 31% report having a formalised policy in place. This disconnect highlights the tension between desired autonomy and control, with CFOs citing fraud concerns (51%) and trust issues (44%) as barriers to implementing effective frameworks. The findings underline the need for robust spend culture frameworks that empower teams without compromising security.What is spend culture?Spend culture refers to the set of attitudes, behaviours and practices that shape how an organisation approaches spending. In practice, this can look like flexibility within a framework. For example, some companies empower employees to use corporate cards within set budgets and limits, a model followed by 28% of respondents, promoting autonomy while retaining oversight