PEX, a corporate card and spend management platform, has launched PEX AI, a set of capabilities that automates everyday finance work, runs multi-step workflows, and connects the platform to widely used AI assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT. The offering is structured around a "crawl, walk, run" approach, allowing teams to hand off progressively more work to AI as trust grows while staying in control.

The launch follows findings from PEX's 2026 State of Finance Report, a survey of 687 finance and operations leaders. According to the report, more than half of respondents expressed interest in each AI capability tested, yet just 31% use AI in finance. Trust emerged as the top barrier: 36% named trust in AI accuracy as the biggest obstacle to using more of it. The staged structure speaks directly to that gap — each stage lets the technology prove itself on lower-stakes work before finance teams hand over anything with more riding on it.

"The businesses that keep our economy moving deserve the same advances in AI as the world's largest enterprises," said Toffer Grant, founder and CEO of PEX. "We're making those capabilities practical and accessible for the finance teams managing day-to-day operations, starting with work that saves time. When AI touches financial decisions, trust has to be earned."

Crawl: Automate Everyday Finance Work

Nearly a third of finance teams lose more than 20 hours a month to manual receipts, coding, and reconciliation. PEX AI starts at that layer with four initial capabilities:

• AI receipt and invoice matching: PEX reads each receipt and matches it to transactions, so finance stops chasing cardholders.
• AI-powered GL coding: PEX suggests the right GL code based on the team's history.
• Bill reading: PEX reads and extracts details from bills, reducing manual data entry.
• PEX Agent: Administrators can ask about transactions, balances, or their account in plain language and get the answer.

Walk: Turn Insights into Action

Once the basics run on their own, PEX AI takes on work with more steps and more at stake:

• Multi-step automation: A single request sets up 20 card groups, cards, or spend rules, replacing 50 clicks.
• Action from the chat: Administrators act on what the PEX Agent finds, such as out-of-policy spend, without leaving the conversation.
• Anomaly detection (coming soon): PEX AI flags unusual spending activity for finance teams to review.
• AI audit history: PEX logs and explains account changes, so administrators know what changed and why.

Run: Put Routine Workflows on Autopilot

At this stage, AI works wherever finance teams work. The PEX MCP server, now in beta, connects PEX to AI assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot Studio. Account administrators can find transactions missing receipts, review spend, or check balances by asking in the AI tools they already use. The beta tag on the MCP server and the "coming soon" label on anomaly detection mark the line between what PEX AI runs today and what it plans to take on next — worth watching as teams weigh how much routine work to hand over.

"Every stage of PEX AI has to earn the next," said Alex Najem, CTO of PEX. "First AI proves it can handle a task. Then it takes on a workflow. Then it runs the routine and flags what needs a person. Finance stays in control of what AI can do and can see the work at every step."

Source: GlobalFinTechSeries