Business planning platform startup Pigment SAS today launched a new artificial intelligence-based offering designed to help business teams make faster, more informed decisions.

Pigment AI, not surprisingly, brings AI to Pigment’s existing cloud-based business forecasting platform that handles business strategy in real time. The use of AI is said to assist finance, sales and human resources leaders in increasing the speed and ease with which they can access various sources to conduct analysis, modeling and reporting.

Key features of Pigment AI include data querying, pattern identification, smart insights, automated analysis and reporting, and assisted modeling and scenario building. Users can now use natural language in a chatlike interface to obtain answers to questions in a quicker and more intuitive way.

In an example given by the company, an executive can use Pigment AI to ask questions such as, “Why are our current projected people costs higher than the approved 2023 plan?” and then receive a summarized response along with a visual presentation that can be shared directly with stakeholders.

“Through Pigment AI, we’re one step closer to our goal of making business planning easier and accessible to everyone,” co-founder and co-Chief Executive Romain Niccoli said in a statement. “However, we know that AI is only as good as the data it’s based on. By providing enterprises with an accurate, single source of truth for their data, we’ve laid the right foundations so that integrating AI becomes a natural next step in the evolution of our platform.”

Coming into the announcement, Pigment said it has already seen a lot of interest in the AI-powered planning aspect of the tool, particularly among “finance leaders who are increasingly becoming strategic business drivers.” The service also provides the benefit of enterprises being able to understand the state of their business quickly at a time of macroeconomic changes and market disruption.

Pigment was last in the news in September when it raised $65 million in new funding for product development and expansion. Investors in the company include IVP, Meritech Capital, FirstMark Capital LLC, Blossom Capital Management Ltd. and Greenoaks Capital Management LLC.

Image: Pigment