After decades of spreadsheets and manual tasks, artificial intelligence is transforming the back office of transportation spend management.

The back-office side of transportation spend management is still making heavy use of manual processes, says Brad McBride, chief executive officer of Zero Down Supply Chain Solutions. Staff continues to engage in keyboarding and the use of Excel spreadsheets to painfully enter such data as cost-allocation codes. “It’s a very tedious manual process that is ripe for improvement,” he says.

Now comes “AI to the rescue,” McBride says. Artificial intelligence has the potential to improve virtually everything about back-office processes, with its ability to digest different types of invoices and normalize data from multiple carriers.

The technology is already making its mark on the back office, he says. But companies that aren’t adopting it — especially freight-audit services — “are falling behind.” AI allows them to onboard carriers quickly and accurately, without the need for elaborate setups or exchange of forms through electronic data interchange.

In addition, McBride says, there’s a growing desire to adopt AI for auditing third-party logistics providers, especially in support of the complexities surrounding e-commerce. Even back-office staffers with their own audit teams can benefit by dispensing with legacy homegrown systems. For those sticking with manual processes, “there’s no question they’re missing opportunities. The profit’s still leaking out.”

The coming of AI doesn’t mean the end of human staff, McBride says. “You have to have some oversight. Automation is going to take place, but you still need the human in the loop.”