Growing companies that outgrow entry-level accounting software face a hard choice: Stay put or gamble on a mid-market ERP that promises automation but often brings cost and disruption. Artificial intelligence is now giving financial software providers a way to close that gap without forcing businesses through a risky migration.

Intuit Inc. is pushing finance toward automation, and its mid-market strategy targets companies caught between small-business tools and legacy systems. Those businesses face the problems of success, such as more customers, more entities and more currencies, and need technology to help them scale, according to Ashley Still (pictured), executive vice president and general manager of mid-market at Intuit.

“Actually, 50% of mid-market ERP implementations fail,” Still said. “So, 50% of businesses that leave their existing financial platform to go to what they think will be a better platform for them actually fail in that implementation. It typically costs $60,000 and six months.”

Still spoke with Alison Kosik and Christophe Bertrand at Intuit Connect, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed why mid-market ERP migrations fail, how Intuit Enterprise Suite fills the gap and how AI agents are taking on routine finance work. (* Disclosure below.)

Closing the mid-market ERP gap with AI

Intuit’s answer is Intuit Enterprise Suite, which lets growing companies scale on the platform where their data already lives instead of starting over. Intuit has added industry-specific editions for construction, manufacturing and nonprofits. Still described the product as the CFO’s command center.

“First, they actually can see a complete view of the business for the first time ever, all of their entities in one place, consolidated financials,” she said. “That really is game-changing because it gives them the ability to make real-time decisions.”

Accounting firms are central to the plan, since 70% of mid-market businesses work with an accountant or advisor, according to Still. Intuit is automating routine work such as categorizations and reconciliations, while its new Agent Studio lets a business or firm build a customizable agent just by describing what it needs. Accounting firms Citrin Cooperman and Sorren have already put agents into production through the tool, she noted.

“The point is the expectation is that more and more of the tedious work is done for a finance team or done for a firm rather than them having to do everything themselves,” Still said.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Intuit Connect:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Intuit Connect. Neither Intuit, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE