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Sage expands AI agents across finance, HR and operations to automate workflows and help teams act faster with control

New AI agents embedded across Sage solutions help organizations move beyond analyzing data to automating workflows and acting on insights with confidence, control and accountability
TORONTO (April 28, 2026) – Sage (FTSE: SGE), the leader in accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology for small and mid-sized businesses, today announced the advancement of AI agents across finance, HR and operations at its flagship event  Sage Future, embedding intelligent automation directly into core business systems. These capabilities help teams act on work directly, not just analyze it.

Sage is bringing these AI agents directly into the systems that businesses and accountants rely on, automating finance workflows in Sage Intacct, workforce management and payroll in Sage’s HCM solutions, and operational insights in Sage X3. This enables organizations to identify issues earlier, respond faster and operate with greater confidence, supported by AI that is transparent, governed and built for real-world financial processes.

As AI becomes embedded in everyday operations, organizations are shifting from manual processing to automated, insight-driven workflows. IDC forecasts that by 2030, 45% of organizations will orchestrate AI agents across core business functions, signaling a major shift in how work gets done and reinforcing the need for AI that is explainable in high-trust environments such as finance and payroll. 

For finance teams, this means moving from processing transactions to managing exceptions and acting on insights, while remaining accountable for the outcomes delivered by AI Agents.

“Our focus is simple: apply AI where it genuinely helps finance teams and business owners do their work better,” said Aaron Harris, Chief Technology Officer at Sage. “That means reducing manual work, improving visibility and helping people act faster with confidence. In finance, ‘almost right’ isn’t good enough. AI must be accurate, auditable and reliable in real workflows, not just impressive in a demo.”

Intelligent agents that help finance teams act with control 

At the center of Sage’s latest advancements is the Sage Intacct Finance Intelligence Agent, which is being rolled out as part of a phased release. It marks a shift from AI that supports analysis to AI that helps finance teams progress work directly within their workflows.

Built on Sage’s financial AI models, the Finance Intelligence Agent allows users to interact with the system using natural language. It can prepare tasks such as payment reminders and approvals within existing workflows, while keeping people in control of final decisions.

Every recommendation includes a clear explanation of the underlying data, logic and assumptions, allowing users to understand and interrogate how outputs are generated. This enables finance teams to move from manual execution to review and decision-making, with greater confidence in the results. 

All AI-driven actions are logged, providing full visibility of what was recommended, what was approved and by whom. This creates a complete audit trail, supporting confidence, control and accountability in finance where accuracy and traceability are critical. 

A governed platform for partner-built AI 

Sage is also expanding its AI platform to enable partners and developers to build new solutions that integrate directly with Sage data and customer workflows. New capabilities including AI Gateway, Agent Builder tools and a dedicated Agent Marketplace will allow partners to design and deploy specialized AI agents tailored to specific industries while meeting Sage standards for trust, security, and interoperability. This opens the next wave of partner-led innovation, enabling partners to build agents that carry their expertise directly into customer workflows.

“AI is transforming how businesses operate, and partners will play a critical role in helping customers adopt these technologies in ways that deliver real value,” said Gretchen O’Hara, EVP Strategic Partnerships and Business Development, Sage. “By opening the Sage platform with strong governance at its core, we are creating new opportunities for innovation across our ecosystem.”

Financial systems require deterministic rules and auditability, so Sage follows a glass box approach to AI. This ensures recommendations remain transparent, explainable and auditable, so organizations can trust the systems running their most critical workflows.

To find out more about visit: Sage AI | Sage US. 

About Sage

Sage exists to knock down barriers so everyone can thrive, starting with the millions of Small and Mid Sized Businesses served by us, our partners and accountants. Customers trust our finance, HR and payroll software to make work and money flow. By digitalizing business processes and relationships with customers, suppliers, employees, banks and governments, our AI-powered platform connects SMBs, removing friction and delivering insights. Knocking down barriers also means we use our time, technology and experience to tackle digital inequality, economic inequality and the climate crisis. 

Notes to editors

Sage announced a new initiative in partnership with PwC called “Beyond the Black Box”, which will redefine how AI is built and adopted in finance, combining transparent, explainable AI with the governance and real-world expertise required to use it with confidence.

“Beyond the Black Box” was created with SMB realities at its core and forms part of Sage’s commitment to helping more SMBs benefit from the transformative impact of AI, building upon the company’s Responsible AI framework and AI Trust Label, reinforcing the belief that trust must be built into AI from the outset.

Sage defines glass box AI as a system where "every answer is explainable, every recommendation is verifiable, and every output can be interrogated," contrasting it with black box AI, where outputs are generated without visibility into how decisions are made.

The AI Trust Label is designed to provide customers with clear, accessible information about the way AI functions across Sage products. It focuses on key trust indicators such as compliance with privacy and data regulations, the presence of safeguards to prevent bias and harm, and the systems in place to monitor accuracy and ethical performance. This initiative allows SMBs to understand how AI impacts them - without needing a technical background.

Sage and PwC are committed to tackling the AI trust gap in finance. Through the initiative, Sage and PwC will combine their expertise into practical tools and frameworks to help finance teams understand, assess, and adopt AI responsibly. This includes embedding trust into how AI is implemented in finance environments while building on Sage’s existing commitment to SMBs, including the Sage AI Academy, which supports organizations with the knowledge and guidance needed to adopt AI with confidence.