LPT and Tipalti have announced a strategic partnership combining payment orchestration with global AP automation—signaling a broader shift toward unified, end-to-end money-movement systems. As cross-border complexity grows, pairing revenue data with payouts highlights a key truth: AI is only as strong as the data connectivity behind it.

NetSuite was named a Leader in two 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrants — a meaningful recognition at a time when AI is reshaping finance and ERP. Gartner evaluates vendors on Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute, and NetSuite’s strength comes from its unified, all-in-one architecture. As I argue in this piece, AI only delivers real insight when data is normalized, consistent, and connected — something NetSuite enforces by design. With embedded AI, open model integration, an

Tipalti’s new Global Finance Outlook report, based on a survey of 2,300 finance professionals, reveals that only 7% have fully automated AP operations, while 83% report higher workloads and 66% more manual work. Despite strong belief in AI’s potential, adoption remains slow — a reminder that before AI can transform finance, teams must first build structured, unified data foundations.

The real power of finance data, and the AI built on top of it, starts from the bottom up. A strong data foundation begins with uniform naming, structured onboarding, and disciplined entry at the transactional level. Companies that build from clean, consistent inputs will unlock faster closes, better insights, and true AI leverage. Those that don’t will spend their time fixing what better design could have prevented.

Tipalti has raised $200M and rolled out new AI features, from natural language reporting to predictive bill approvers. While these enhancements make the platform easier to use, they feel more incremental than transformative. For CFOs, Tipalti remains a strong payables tool. But there's only so much you can do as an AP module.