There’s something magical about technology quietly helping us get things done faster, like iOS autofilling a security code without you needing to open your messages. The right information appears exactly when you need it — no manual steps, no friction. Even the way ChatGPT or Claude asks, “Would you like to make that text shorter?” before you need to type it.

That blend of speed and foresight is making its way into finance. It’s called intelligent finance, and it transforms traditional finance workflows into a system that learns your business patterns, anticipates your needs, and acts in real time. It’s power and precision without the noise, working in the background to help you move faster without losing control.

However, not every financial provider can deliver this. Brex re-architected the entire finance process around what modern businesses actually need — finance that moves at your speed. We even rethought how we qualify, onboard, and serve customers using AI, so you can get started on your own timeline, not ours.

Brex can do this because we own the intersection of financial services and software, with global payments and controls, accounting automated in the background, and AI that adapts intelligently to your business.

In the next few minutes, you’ll learn how companies like Plaid, SeatGeek, and Pramand are using it to reduce work and drive business value. These five benefits open up a world of possibilities when your finance system eliminates hours of manual work, anticipates your needs, and acts in real time.

5 real-world benefits of intelligent finance

Brex customers are already reaping the benefits of intelligent finance, including an average employee compliance rate of 98% (well above the 70% average) and up to 9x faster expense processing*. Leaders at top companies share how they’re making speed and control their new competitive advantage.

1. Employees spend 30% less time on expenses

What if expense reports could do themselves? That’s what Plaid achieved with Brex’s intelligent finance platform. Instead of Plaid having to chase receipts to upload or manually enter attendees to line items, Brex automatically generates receipts, fills in memos, and even pulls attendee lists directly from calendar invites. Plaid employees spend 30% less time on expenses with Brex, and finance gets cleaner data without the back-and-forth.

“Like most companies, we're leaning into AI to gain new efficiencies,” said Sophie Chiang, lead accounting manager at Plaid. “Brex has made a huge impact. The pre-filled memos, the auto-categorization, the AI suggestions — it all enables a more productive team.”

2. Never manually code and categorize expenses again

Imagine a world where nearly 100% of expenses are classified and coded, and compliant transactions are approved automatically, before the team even touches them. SeatGeek’s finance team doesn’t have to imagine.

Brex AI auto-codes 99.7% of SeatGeek’s card transactions, generates receipts and memos, and applies the right GL categorization automatically. What used to take SeatGeek 22 hours of manual documentation now takes just 2. Month-end close? Only 15 minutes. That shift gives SeatGeek’s accounting team more time for analysis and strategy instead of repetitive admin.

“At one point, expense card close consumed nearly three full working days reconciling 15 shared department cards, tracking down receipts, and manually coding transactions,” said Teddy Collins, EVP of Finance, SeatGeek. “AI-powered solutions like Brex help employees spend their time better. With Brex, employees don’t have to fill out expense reports, and there’s more accurate data for the finance team.”

3. Smart controls automatically separate operational and T&E spend

For many companies, separating operational spend from T&E spend is easier said than done. Traditional cards just block vendors by Merchant Category Code, but that often means blocking the vendor entirely. That left the leading independent bottling company in the US with an impossible choice: allow too much or restrict too much.

Brex cards flex to support procurement, T&E, fleet, or stipends with AI-powered rules and tailored limits that automatically adjust by category, merchant, or even transaction. It’s why the $2B bottler and distributor has a 99% employee expense compliance rate.

“We easily separated T&E and procurement using Brex’s spend limits,” said Senior Procurement Manager Matt Bailey. “Now, any team with a procurement limit can buy from Amazon without trouble, while anyone trying to purchase from Amazon using a T&E limit is automatically blocked. Traditional credit card programs cannot offer the same flexibility and built-in controls as the Brex card.”

4. AI-suggested accounting rules show up when you need them

Monthly fragrance subscription service Scentbird runs a multi-brand, global operation where coding complexity can slow finance teams down. Brex intelligent finance makes the process smarter with AI-driven rules and recommendations that improve accuracy at scale. Instead of relying on individuals to code every transaction, Brex suggests rules based on past activity, catching patterns, offering fixes before errors occur, and automatically adjusting settings for the future.

“Brex actually uses AI to suggest custom rules and settings,” said Amber Papp, Scentbird’s VP of Finance. “So Brex will suggest, ‘For this merchant, do you always sync into NetSuite and want help to set that up and streamline the process?’ It’s been super helpful. We are completing expenses and accounting twice as fast with Brex than before.”

5. Policies enforce themselves and accelerate month-end close by 3x

A finance team can’t be everywhere, but what if your expense policy could? Pramand got exactly that with Brex intelligent finance. Pramand’s Controller, Jessica Ray, says she simply uploaded their spend policy and let Brex handle the rest. Spend limits auto-enforce at every swipe, while approval chains automatically route expenses to managers when thresholds are met. The result: speed for employees, oversight for managers, and a 70% faster month-end close for finance.

“Before Brex, we had few ways to manage spend beyond just a corporate card’s credit limit,” Jessica said. “With Brex’s spend limits and category restrictions, our spend policy enforces itself. It’s minimal work for our employees and managers to submit and approve expenses every month, and the onus isn’t solely on me to enforce compliance.”

How Brex delivers intelligent finance

From Excel to QuickBooks to early automation, finance technology has always promised efficiency by cutting steps and streamlining bookkeeping. But today, AI and machine learning are taking finance further with a solution that acts like an extension of your team.

Brex is that solution. With smart cards, integrated controls, and embedded policies, Brex captures the full context of spend — who made the purchase, what was bought, where it happened, and why it was approved. That context powers AI that doesn’t start from scratch but learns continuously and anticipates your needs, like adding attendees to a dinner expense based on your calendar or auto-coding a SaaS subscription to the right department.

Our customers say Brex feels less like software and more like a self-driving finance engine: “Brex managed to build a platform that anticipated our future finance needs,” says Jessica Ray at Pramand. “Brex easily scales with our company, which makes it such a powerful solution.”

The future of finance is intelligent

For decades, finance leaders have had to choose between speed and control. Intelligent finance changes that equation. With Brex, policies enforce themselves, expenses code and reconcile automatically, and insights surface before you even ask. It’s finance that works in the background. It’s always on and always learning.

That’s why more than 30,000 global companies, including 1 in 3 US startups and over 250 public companies, run on Brex. They’re closing faster, spending smarter, and scaling with confidence.

Ready to make speed and control your advantage? Book a demo at brex.com/sales, or sign up for Brex today.

* Based on internal metrics from December 2024. Past performance does not guarantee future results, which may vary.