Sage embeds AI agents in finance software through expanded Amazon Web Services partnership

'Sage Future' Features New Workflow AI Agents, Expanded Development Capabilities

At the Sage Future customer and partner conference this week, the software vendor also debuted new capabilities for its flagship Sage Intacct financial management and accounting system and launched a next-generation human capital management application. Sage is building AI agents into its finance, human resource management and operations applications in a move the company said is embedding intelligent workflow automation directly into its core business systems for small and mid-size businesses. The new agents will automate finance workflows in Sage Intacct, the company's popular financial management and accounting software; workforce management and payroll workflows in Sage HCM; and operational workflows in Sage X3, the company's ERP application suite for mid-to-large companies. Sage, which is holding its Sage Future customer and partner event in San Francisco this week, is also expanding its developer platform with new AI tools and commercial models that the company says will make it easier for partners and in-house developers to build, launch and scale Sage-based solutions. [Related: CRN 2026 Channel Chiefs] The AI and developer news follows several additional announcements Sage made in the week leading up to Sage Future including a new Sage HCM human capital management application for mid-size organizations, new functionality in Sage Intacct, and new AI and automation capabilities in the Sage Intacct Advisory program that helps accounting firms deliver outsourced finance and advisory services to clients. At Sage Future the company also said it is expanding its collaboration with Amazon Web Services to more closely link Sage's financial applications with AWS cloud infrastructure and AI services to help SMB customers embed agentic AI into business workflows. Sage also announced its acquisition of Doyen AI and its tools for migrating financial data. "Finance is, fundamentally, about accountability. Every number needs to be explained, every decision needs to be defended," said Sage CTO Aaron Harris in a press briefing before Sage Future. He noted that as AI is increasingly embedded in financial workflows, "too much of it still operates as a black box." "Every vendor is talking about [AI agents], but there's a difference between talking about agents and deploying agents inside the systems that run your business in real workflows," Harris said. "We have real auditability under real governance. Sage is expanding our intelligent AI agents embedded across finance, HR and operations, building on the agentic capabilities we've already been delivering -- not bolt on tools or browser extensions, but built into the platforms finance teams already use." Sage's executive messaging about the level of AI and agent hype resonated with Chris Smith, Sage practice director at Net at Work, in an interview with CRN. (Net at Work, a New York-based solution provider and MSP, is Sage's biggest channel partner.) Smith appreciated the emphasis on how AI technology needs to be coupled with expertise in such areas as financial workflows and in vertical and even micro-vertical industries. "They are really hitting on the precision of AI," said Smith, who is attending Sage Future and is closely following the keynotes. "I think, from an AI strategy perspective, they're doing a good job teeing up [about how] there's a lot of noise in the market" and why partners and customers "should look at Sage. They have a really good story. I think it lands well from that perspective." The expanded developer platform, including the new Sage Agent Builder and AI Gateway, are key for partners, CTO Harris said. "Because no software company can build every solution every business needs, Sage is opening its platform so partners and developers can build their own AI agents, purpose-built for specific industries, and deploy them directly inside Sage workflows," Harris said. "We're launching Sage Agent Builder, the AI Gateway and a dedicated agent marketplace. But the most important point is this: As more agents get built, including third-party agents, the differentiator isn't just capability, it's governed execution." Sage's channel partners will play a major role in all this said Gretchen O'Hara, Sage executive vice president of strategic partnerships and business development, in an interview with CRN. "Our partner ecosystem is part of our ability to scale and differentiate and go into micro verticals, and that's going to be really important in this as we transform from SaaS now [to] more of agentic AI and how we bring value to those customers," O'Hara said. "Sage's ecosystem has that depth that is going to be able to help lead customers along the way, especially in these mission-critical areas of the business." Here's a closer look at the technology announcements Sage is highlighting this week at Sage Future. Sage said its new AI agents embed intelligent automation directly into core business systems, automating finance workflows in Sage Intacct, workforce management and payroll in Sage's HCM applications, and operational insights in Sage X3. The new agentic capabilities will enable organizations to identify issues earlier and respond faster, according to the company. Finance teams, for example, can move beyond processing transactions to managing exceptions and acting on insights. Sage said the center of the AI agent advancements is the Sage Intacct Finance Intelligence Agent, which is scheduled for general availability later in 2026. The agent can prepare tasks such as payment reminders, approvals and write-offs within existing workflows, while keeping people in control of final decisions. It can analyze financial performance, retrieve insights and identify anomalies. Sage Intacct Finance Intelligence Agent is built on Sage's financial AI models and allows users to interact with the system using natural language. Its recommendations include clear explanations of the underlying data, logic and assumptions, allowing users to understand and interrogate how outputs are generated, according to Sage. All AI-driven actions are logged, providing full visibility of what was recommended, what was approved and by whom, creating a complete audit trail, supporting control and accountability in finance where accuracy and traceability are critical. Sage introduced Sales and Operational Intelligence agents for Sage X3 that surface risks in sales performance and operational workflows. The company is also expanding AI across HR and payroll workflows, including providing an HCM agent designed to support workforce management, labor allocation and payroll compliance tasks. And Sage Copilot capabilities are being expanded across Sage Intacct, Sage X3, Sage Accounting, Sage Active, Sage Operations, Sage 50, Sage Individual and Sage for Accountants, helping users interact with financial data, automate tasks such as document capture and reconciliation, and surface insights and recommendations to support decision making. As businesses demand more connected and intelligent tools, Sage notes that the role of developers and partners is becoming increasingly important. Sage is expanding the capabilities of its developer platform with new tools, new AI agent capabilities, and more flexible commercial options that the software vendor said make it easier for developers, ISVs and channel partners to build, launch and scale solutions across the Sage product ecosystem. "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," channel chief O'Hara said in a statement. "By opening the Sage platform with strong governance at its core, we are creating new opportunities for innovation across our ecosystem." The platform update introduces a more unified developer experience across Sage Intacct, Sage X3 and Sage Active (the company's cloud accounting software for European SMBs) that gives partners a "clearer way to build once, integrate more easily, and bring solutions to market faster," the company said in a description of the new capabilities. Sage also unveiled new AI development tools, including Sage Agent Builder and AI Gateway. Together, the tools give partners a more structured way to design, test and deploy AI-powered experiences within Sage workflows, including Sage Copilot and Sage Marketplace, according to the company. With a more unified platform and dedicated AI tooling, Sage said it is enabling partners to develop solutions that integrate more easily across finance and operational workflows, reducing complexity and improving time to market. Partners can now work through a single point of access to APIs, SDKs and agentic capabilities across Sage products, according to the company, reducing complexity, shortening development time, and making it easier to scale solutions across regions and customer segments. When Sage introduced Sage Agent Builder to early-adopter partners in November, "We had a wave of partners who said: "I'm in,'" said Dan Miller, executive vice president of the Sage Financials and ERP Division, during the press pre-briefing. "Because it gave them the opportunity to leverage their internal expertise in a particular vertical or particular industry or a particular set of workflows that they commonly hear from their customers...I think this gives our value-added resellers, our channel partners, a significant opportunity to specialize in particular industries and provide more value on top of the core system," said Miller. "The biggest difference for us is how much more straightforward it is to build and bring solutions to market," said, Ethan Carlson, chief revenue officer at DataBlend (a eOne company), a Sage technology partner based in Stowe, Vt., that provides integration and consulting services for finance and accounting teams. "What really stands out is the introduction of capabilities like the AI Gateway, which gives us a more practical way to build AI-driven functionality into our solutions," Carlson said in a statement. "With DataBlend Popdock AI Agent, we are able to connect data across systems and bring insights directly into finance workflows, reducing complexity and helping teams act on their data more quickly." Sage is also introducing new commercial business models that the company says provide clearer ways for partners to monetize and grow. Sage introduced more flexible pricing and revenue models, including usage-based pricing and revenue sharing, to help partners grow more predictably as adoption increases. On the eve of Sage Future this week the company unveiled new capabilities in Sage Intacct that connect planning, spend management, cash flow and industry-specific workflows in one platform. Many finance teams today rely on manual processes and disconnected systems that Sage said limits real-time visibility into finances and slow decision making. The updates to Intacct are designed to help finance managers reduce fragmentation, improve visibility and make faster, higher quality decisions. Enhanced Sage Intacct Planning (eSIP), slated for availability later this year, will provide a more responsive and connected approach to planning, according to the vendor. A redesigned engine built for complex models and live collaboration will be natively connected to Sage Intacct Financials, giving teams a single environment for plans, actuals, and dimensions. Sage Expense Management, now available in the U.S., strengthens spending control with AI-powered recognition, simplified capture and modern policy handling. New receivables and customer payment capabilities in the spring release will support more predictable cash flow by streamlining the path from invoice to payment and improving visibility into cash position. Sage also continues to build industry-specific workflows across Sage Intacct, including: * Insurance: PolicyConnect connects policy and financial data to help insurance finance teams improve forecasting, risk management and reporting alignment, * Lending: Lending Management connects lending and finance workflows to reduce errors, simplify audits and improve visibility into performance and risk, * Product-centric industries: Operations for Sage Intacct helps distributors and manufacturers gain better visibility across inventory, sales and operations, * Construction and real estate: newly expanded connected workflows help reduce manual work and more effectively manage project performance. In the runup to Sage Future, the company last week unveiled Sage HCM, a new human capital management system for mid-market organizations in North America. The application, which is integrated with Sage Intacct, connects HR, payroll and workforce data with financial management to provide organizations with a better view of -- and control over -- workforce costs. Sage HCM is generally available this month. Sage also launched vertical industry capabilities, such as Sage HCM for Construction, to help businesses and organizations connect labor, payroll and job costing data in a single system. Sage HCM for Construction is designed for businesses, particularly those using Sage Intacct Construction or Sage 300 CRE, that manage complex labor and project-based operations. And a new HCM Agent, Sage's first AI agent for HR and payroll workflows, uses AI-powered automation to streamline HR and payroll workflows, according to the company. Sage said the launch of Sage HCM creates opportunities for partners to support their customers in workforce management, payroll and compliance alongside finance transformation. They can deliver Sage HCM, Sage Intacct and industry-specific solutions that integrate workforce and financial data. Sage is expanding Sage Intacct Advisory, previously known as the Sage Intacct Advisory Program, with new AI-powered capabilities. (Intacct Advisory, built on the Sage Intacct platform, offers accounting firm partners a more standardized way to provide their Intacct clients with outsourced finance and advisory services.) The new capabilities introduce automation, AI-enabled workflows, data migration tools and industry-specific templates that Sage said support more structured, efficient service delivery across an accounting firm's client base. They are designed to streamline client onboarding and delivery, and help accounting firms manage and scale multiple client environments more consistently by reducing manual efforts. "Businesses increasingly expect their finance partners to provide deeper insight and more strategic guidance," said Keven Truhler, principal at CLA Digital, a digital strategy service and solution provider that partners with Sage, in a statement. "Programs like Sage Intacct Advisory help firms structure and scale those services across a diverse client base while maintaining efficiency. That allows us to deliver more impactful advice and better support organizations as they grow."

Sage's agent wager

Sage has just announced a deepened agreement with Amazon Web Services, and the expanded pact is a sign of where business software is heading. The promise is that small firms will get AI agents inside their ledgers. The risk is that another layer of corporate life becomes dependent on a few giant cloud platforms. Sage, the Newcastle-born accounting-software group, has widened its collaboration with Amazon Web Services to push "agentic AI" into finance, payroll and compliance tools used by small and mid-sized businesses. Announced today at Sage Future in San Francisco, the deal will put Sage Developer Solutions on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore and make partner-built AI tools available through AWS Marketplace. Sage and its partners want software agents to handle routine financial work: matching invoices, chasing anomalies, preparing cash-flow forecasts, processing payroll and helping with compliance reports. For small firms, which often lack IT departments and rely on overworked finance managers, that is a plausible use case. The tedious, rules-heavy corners of accounting are precisely where automation tends to look most useful. The announcement is also part of a larger shift. For decades Sage's franchise was built on helping smaller companies digitise paperwork. The company says it began in 1981 after David Goldman sought to automate estimating and basic accounting at his printing business - it listed in London in 1989 and entered the FTSE 100 in 1999. Now the challenge is different: persuading customers to move from familiar desktop systems to cloud-native software that can host AI functions. Agentic AI, in this context, means software that can not only generate text or answer questions, but also take steps across a workflow. In finance, that could mean gathering documents, checking rules, escalating exceptions and drafting actions for human approval. Business software is moving from systems of record to systems that recommend, execute and learn from transactions. The UK has long had strengths in AI research and enterprise software, but it has often struggled to turn technical advantage into large domestic technology platforms. On one hand, British companies such as Sage can use American cloud infrastructure to reach customers faster, build with more reliable tools and avoid spending years duplicating plumbing that already exists. On the other, the deeper AI becomes embedded in business processes, the more power accrues to the large US firms that provide compute, model access, marketplaces and developer platforms. The UK government has tried to answer this with a mixture of enthusiasm and industrial policy. Its 2026 update to the AI Opportunities Action Plan says it has designated five AI Growth Zones, recorded £68bn of pledged investment since January 2025 and increased AI compute capacity tenfold between 2024 and 2025. Such measures are designed to stop Britain from becoming merely a sales office and talent pool for foreign technology giants. But sovereignty is easier to discuss than to deliver. Agentic AI depends on cloud scale, foundation models, data access, integration tooling and trust frameworks. Few British firms can control all of those layers. Sage's wager is therefore pragmatic: rather than attempting to own the whole AI stack, it is trying to own the customer relationship and the financial workflow, while using AWS for infrastructure and distribution. For small and mid-sized businesses, the value of the collaboration will be measured in error rates, implementation time, auditability and price. Many smaller firms have heard years of promises about digital transformation. They are looking to AI to reduce late payments, improve payroll accuracy, and make tax and reporting processes less painful. This is where Sage has an advantage. Accounting software is sticky, regulated and close to the daily anxieties of business owners. If AI agents can be embedded into familiar workflows with clear controls, they may spread faster than standalone AI tools. AWS Marketplace could also simplify procurement for businesses that already buy software through Amazon's cloud channel.