Payhawk unveils “AI Office of the CFO” bringing enterprise-ready AI to finance operations

This article first appeared as a Press release.

The news

• Payhawk launches the "AI Office of the CFO," a suite of purpose-built agents designed to drastically enhance finance team efficiency and streamline operations
• The new AI agents autonomously tackle critical, time-consuming tasks like expense reports, purchase requests, travel bookings, and payment inquiries freeing up finance teams for higher-value work
• Leveraging Payhawk's secure, enterprise-grade infrastructure, these AI agents offer the perfect balance of automation and control, enabling seamless AI adoption in spend management and finance

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.

Hristo Borisov, CEO of Payhawk, says:

Finance leaders know AI will have an impact on their operations, but until now, there hasn't been a clear and practical path forward. 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. Employees just say what they need, and the agent guides them through company policies, gathers required approvals, and helps compare vendor options — replacing days of emails and form-filling with a smooth, guided process
• The Travel Agent simplifies business travel by managing the entire process, from booking policy-compliant flights and hotels to capturing all related expenses. This eliminates manual coordination across departments or external agencies while ensuring compliance and complete documentation
• The Payments Agent handles employee inquiries about transactions, reimbursements, and supplier payments, providing answers and investigating issues — tasks that previously took up the finance team’s time unnecessarily

Boyko Karadzov, CTO of Payhawk, explains:

What makes our approach unique is that we've built these AI agents on Payhawk's existing financial infrastructure. Our platform already handles global spend management through licensed payments, established approval workflows, granular spend controls, and system integrations — the exact foundation needed for secure, effective AI implementation in finance. Our vision is to offer all the capabilities of our web and mobile apps through natural conversation with AI, enabling users to work with Payhawk however they prefer.

The AI agents integrate seamlessly into Payhawk's enterprise-grade secure infrastructure using established permissions, workflows, and audit trails. Finance teams will maintain the same visibility and control they need while gaining AI's benefits. This security-first foundation uniquely positions Payhawk to deliver AI that meets finance's fundamental need for control.

This launch marks an important step forward in enterprise finance. According to Payhawk’s latest CFO tech gap study, 87% of finance leaders trust AI to take over some of their responsibilities. Responding to market needs, the AI Office of the CFO combines powerful AI capabilities with Payhawk's trusted infrastructure to deliver practical value for finance teams. These agents help organisations confidently embrace AI, transforming how finance teams work.

Customers can access the Financial Controller Agent early, and additional specialised agents will be released throughout 2025. Find out what the Financial Controller Agent can do for you.