BlackLine has introduced Verity AI, a suite of artificial intelligence capabilities developed on its Studio360 platform to help finance leaders automate tasks, access predictive insights, and manage a digital workforce.
Verity AI has been developed to address the needs of the Chief Financial Officer's office by embedding governance, transparency and auditability into its processes. The suite automates complex finance tasks, provides forward-looking analysis, and introduces agentic AI workers managed by a team lead, Vera. BlackLine's experience in finance process management and its partnership with Google Cloud's Gemini models underpin Verity's data integrity and security.
Purpose-built for the CFO
According to BlackLine, Verity is anchored on three core pillars: a control layer for auditability and governance, a unified platform for consolidated data management, and two decades of process knowledge. The AI capabilities are designed to support common financial functions, from record-to-report to invoice-to-cash workflows. This ensures all outputs are traceable and that financial data is handled in a manner that meets enterprise standards for auditability and risk management.
Owen Ryan, Co-CEO and Chairman of the Board at BlackLine, explained the company's approach to developing its generative AI platform:
"Many are asking how generative AI will impact business software. Our answer is clear: its power is unlocked only when it's built on an uncompromising foundation of data integrity and trust. What truly separates BlackLine is our unwavering commitment to that principle, which uniquely positions us to lead the AI revolution in finance. With Verity, we are giving finance professionals AI they can trust - powerful, transparent, auditable, and purpose-built for the demands of the office of the CFO."
Verity's unified data layer, powered by Snowflake, provides users with a single source of truth for financial data, intended to help deliver confidence in automated processes and their results. The product combines BlackLine's finance domain expertise with advances in artificial intelligence to support decision-making, reconciliations and reporting for its estimated 4,400 existing clients.
Digital workforce features
Central to Verity is Vera, the AI team lead concept, which acts as an orchestrator for specialised AI agents. Vera enables users in finance and accounting to interact with and direct their digital workforce, assign tasks, and review automated outputs. The approach aims to maintain full user control, oversight, and audit capabilities as tasks are completed by AI-based agents.
Verity's feature set includes several targeted capabilities. Its agentic experiences enable the deployment of digital workers to handle complex, end-to-end workflows. Intelligent insights and proactive analysis transform raw data into actionable guidance, aiding in forecasting and risk detection. A next-generation automation layer manages high-volume financial processes, such as AI-based matching and data extraction, while automating content generation and data summarisation to support manual review and reporting activities.
Jeremy Ung, Chief Technology Officer at BlackLine, discussed the technical strategy taken for the suite:
"BlackLine's differentiation lies in providing the essential application and control layer that makes powerful AI auditable, trustworthy, and indispensable for the enterprise. Our vision is to deliver future-ready financial operations through agentic AI that goes beyond automation - empowering customers to anticipate, decide, and act faster. With trusted partners like Google Cloud, we are combining Google's leading Gemini models with our unmatched governance and process expertise."
Collaboration with Google Cloud
The partnership with Google Cloud brings enhanced generative AI features via the Gemini models to BlackLine's platform. This collaboration aims to provide financial professionals with tools to close their books more efficiently and gain strategic insights from financial data.
Rodrigo Rocha, Managing Director for Global ISV Partnerships at Google Cloud, commented on the relationship:
"We are excited to partner with BlackLine to accelerate innovation with Google Cloud's generative AI. By bringing Google's AI capabilities to BlackLine's platform, joint customers can close their books faster with greater confidence and unlock the strategic insights within their financial data."
Trusted AI in finance
BlackLine highlights its approach to trusted AI as a means of enabling collaborative work between humans and digital agents, supported by data governance and audit controls. The company's strategy is focused on giving finance teams the ability to manage operations with both strategic insight and control over their automated workforce.
