Sage Future is one of those events where the real signal isn’t always in the keynotes.
It’s in the conversations between sessions. The questions people ask at booths. The themes that keep surfacing across completely different conversations.
A few things became very clear to me at this year's event in San Francisco.
The AI conversation has finally grown up
One of the main stage keynotes was called “From Black Box to Glass Box: AI You Can Trust.”
That title alone says a lot about where the market is right now. The conversation is no longer about whether AI belongs in finance. It’s about whether finance leaders can actually trust it.
Can they understand how a conclusion was reached? Can they audit it? Explain it to a board? Stand behind it when something goes wrong?
That’s a far more mature conversation than the one we’ve had over the past two years.
For a long time, AI discussions in finance were dominated by demos, possibilities and promises.
At Sage Future, the focus had clearly shifted toward accountability. And honestly, that’s a healthy sign for the industry.
AP automation is becoming a strategic capability
The energy around accounts payable was noticeably different this year. Not necessarily louder. But more strategic.
The conversation has shifted from: “How do we reduce manual work in AP?”, to: “How does AP improve financial visibility, supplier relationships, control, and scalability?”
That’s a meaningful shift.
Sessions focused on AP and AR automation were no longer framed as operational efficiency topics. They were positioned as part of broader conversations around financial infrastructure and business performance.
That reflects what we’re seeing in the market as well. At Rillion, we’ve believed for a long time that AP is not just a back-office function. It’s a strategic lever.
The strongest customer examples at the event weren’t really about saving time on invoice handling. They were about freeing finance teams to spend more time on analysis, decision-making, and supporting the business.
One customer shared they had freed up more than 100 hours per month from manual reconciliation work alone. That’s bigger than efficiency. That changes how finance teams operate.
The adoption gap is still massive
One data point shared during the event has stayed with me. While the vast majority of CFOs want more automation and see AI as an important enabler, actual daily usage of AI tools remains surprisingly low.
Intent is high. Adoption is not.
That gap is where the real opportunity sits. And the companies that close it won’t necessarily be the ones with the most advanced technology. They’ll be the ones that make AI easier to trust, easier to implement, and easier to scale across the organization.
Connected ecosystems are winning
Another theme surfaced almost everywhere: finance leaders are tired of disconnected tools. Customers are not looking for more software. They’re looking for software that works together.
The organizations getting the most value from their finance stack are not necessarily the ones with the most systems. They’re the ones where data flows cleanly, insights appear in context, and teams spend less time navigating complexity.
That sounds simple. In reality, it’s very hard to execute well. And increasingly, it’s becoming one of the main things buyers evaluate vendors on.
My biggest takeaway
Events like Sage Future are a useful reminder that technology alone rarely changes a business. People do.
The strongest customer stories weren’t really about software. They were about organizations willing to rethink how they work, supported by leadership teams willing to drive change.
Even in an industry moving fast, progress is still fundamentally a people challenge. And I think that’s important to remember.
