Sage Future 2026: What We Heard on the Ground

Photo Credit: Sage

The Venn team was on the ground at Sage Future 2026 in San Francisco for both days of main stage sessions. Here's what stood out.

Sage's AI momentum is real

Sage has been investing in AI since 2017 and the results are showing up in the numbers:

• 400 million AI inferences per month (up from 40 million a year ago)
• $5B+ in vendor invoices processed monthly through proprietary models
• 17,000+ customers running custom-trained AI models in production

Sage CTO Aaron Harris made the point in a way that stuck: everyone assumes AI means fewer software developers. He thinks it means 10x more software. That framing (growth-oriented rather than defensive) ran through everything at the event.

Trust is the real product

For finance teams, AI trust isn't a soft concern. Sage cited data showing 70% of CFOs would reject AI output, even 99% accurate output, if they can't see the reasoning behind it.

Sage's answer is what they're calling “glass box AI” built on three pillars:

• Confidence: outputs are explainable and grounded in your own data
• Control: humans stay in the loop on anything consequential
• Accountability: every action is fully traceable, end to end

They also announced a partnership with PwC called “Beyond the Black Box” - a joint initiative to raise the standard for responsible AI in finance.

Tech journalist Kara Swisher joined Sage's Chief Brand and Corporate Affairs Officer Amy Lawson on stage for a candid conversation about where AI trust is breaking down publicly.

Her take: AI companies have made a marketing mistake by leading with existential stakes instead of practical value. Sage's glass box approach is a direct response to that credibility gap and a real differentiator in a crowded market.

The moments that made it land

Scott Prue, CFO of the New York Yankees, talked through what changed after implementing Sage Intacct. His priority wasn't reporting dashboards, it was giving department heads direct access to their own spending data, eliminating a five-day wait for basic budget questions. Simple in concept, significant in practice when you're managing 40+ departments.

Partners on the main stage echoed a similar shift: clients who were skeptical about AI a year ago are now asking when they can get started. The partners showing up to those conversations with vertical-specific workflows and best practices already built are winning.

What was announced

• Doyen AI acquisition — an AI-powered ERP migration company. Early results: 250+ hours saved on complex migrations, 60–80% time reduction per source file
• Expanded AWS partnership — Sage Developer Solutions now on Amazon Bedrock Agent Core, with AWS Marketplace integration and up to $50K in credits for new ISV partners
• Sage Intacct AI Gateway — live now. REST API + MCP server for connecting external AI tools directly to Intacct data
• Finance Intelligence Agent — natural language queries, proactive insights, workspace creation. Early adopter program launching soon, broader rollout to the Sage partner ecosystem in roughly six months

What it means for Sage partners

• First-mover window is open. AI developer tools expand to the broader partner ecosystem in about six months. Partners building vertical-specific solutions now will have a real head start.
• Co-selling changes the math. Partners co-selling with Sage generate 6x more revenue than those going solo — and that gap widens as solutions get more complex.
• HCM + Intacct is working. Partners selling both are seeing doubled average deal size.

The Venn take

AI agents are only as good as the data they can reach. If Intacct isn't connected to your CRM, your donor platform, or your other core systems, those agents are working with a fraction of the picture. The integration layer is what makes the AI actually useful, and it's where we spend most of our time.

If you want to talk through what any of this means for your Intacct environment, we're happy to dig in.