The Verification Tax: Why AI in Finance Has to Show Its Work

Stuart Langer, Deputy CTO at Sage, says the biggest hidden cost of AI in finance is the time spent checking its work, which he calls the verification tax. A CPA by training, Stuart joins Doug and Matt to explain why AI tools that show their work beat flashy features, and what that means for finance jobs from staff accountant to CFO. He also makes a bold prediction about how accounting software will be built in the next six months.

CHAPTERS

Listen to learn more about

• (00:00) Podcast Welcome
• (00:38) Meet Stuart Langer
• (01:47) Why He Returned
• (03:58) CPA To Tech Journey
• (10:11) Teaching Future Accountants
• (12:46) Understanding Verification Tax
• (15:38) Building Trustworthy AI
• (18:21) Humans In The Loop
• (21:19) How Finance Jobs Shift
• (24:07) Telemetry And Outliers
• (26:42) AP Automation With AI
• (27:18) Free OCR Changes AP
• (28:19) Glass Box Versus Black Box
• (28:58) IDC Trust Research
• (30:43) Audit Trails Matter
• (31:32) Teaching AI Fundamentals
• (33:51) Chatbots Need Controls
• (36:45) Differentiating ERP Trust
• (38:48) Nonprofit Audit Agent
• (40:03) Explaining AI At Scale
• (43:53) Fiction In Training Data
• (46:42) Six Month Agent Marketplaces
• (49:40) Key Takeaways And Wrap

Speakers

Doug Lewis
Host | Consultant
LinkedIn

Matt Lescault
Host | CEO, Lescault & Walderman
LinkedIn

Stuart Langer, CPA, MBA
Guest

Related Resources

• Show Notes

If you work in the Sage Intacct ecosystem and have a story worth telling, a lesson learned the hard way or a strong opinion on where finance is heading, we’d like to hear from you.