Emburse Adds AI to Receipt Scanning Technology

Travel and expense management provider Emburse has launched a new receipt scanning engine that the company said improves accuracy and moves it a step closer to wholly automated expense management.

The Emburse Transcription Engine adds an AI component to optical character recognition technology, the capability of scanning printed or written text and converting it into machine-readable data. In receipt scanning technology, OCR traditionally has taken a "geographic" approach, converting data and populating fields based on where such data would typically be found on a receipt, Emburse chief product officer Richard Crum said. That usually results in an accuracy rate in the 70 to 80 percent range, he said.

The AI component enables the Emburse Transaction Engine to learn how to read receipts and extra data down to a line-item level. Emburse currently claims a 90 percent accuracy rate with the engine, and that should improve as the technology continues to scan more receipts, according to Crum.

"What's great about the AI underpinning, it's not about humans coding it," he said. "It will learn. When it does get something wrong, it automatically is fed back, and it keeps improving."

The technology should be available within all Emburse's products by the end of the year, Crum said.

While expense management has become increasingly digital, there are still a significant portion of paper receipts in the typical expense report, particularly with dining. The ultimate goal is to make the typical employee's expense experience like an executive who never has to fill out their own expense report and instead simply hands over a pile of receipts to an assistant, Crum said.

"This kind of technology allows us to get closer," he said. "It improves accuracy and understands data more precisely, and that gives the approver more confidence."