Governing AI Agents Without Losing Cost Control With Basware

How do you give AI agents greater responsibility without losing control of the decisions they make or the costs they generate? On AI at Work, I’m joined by Jason Kurtz, Chief Executive Officer of Basware, to discuss governed autonomy, financial accountability, and what businesses need to consider as AI begins taking a more active role in their operations. For finance leaders, the challenge extends beyond choosing a tool. They need to understand what an agent is authorized to do, where human judgment remains necessary, and how to establish whether the investment is delivering useful results. Our conversation looks at the relationship between autonomy and oversight. Giving an AI system permission to complete a task creates questions about responsibility, approval boundaries, and intervention. When should an agent proceed independently, and when should a person review its work? These are business decisions that require input from the people responsible for the process, alongside the teams implementing the technology. We also discuss the CFO’s role in assessing AI value. Understanding the bill is only part of the job. Leaders need to connect spending with outcomes, whether that means improving a finance process, reducing repetitive work, or helping employees make better decisions. The conversation considers why cost visibility and evidence of value need to develop together. Token-based pricing adds another complication. As AI usage grows, businesses can face costs that vary with the amount and complexity of the work being performed. An experiment that appears affordable at a small scale may require a different commercial assessment when it becomes part of everyday operations. Jason and I discuss the questions leaders should ask about pricing, usage, and the relationship between greater adoption and greater expense. The people involved deserve equal attention. Working alongside AI agents may create new responsibilities for training, supervision, and governance. Employees need to understand how these systems fit into their work, what they can reasonably expect from them, and when to challenge an output or escalate a decision. Introducing digital workers brings organizational questions as well as technical ones. For anyone considering AI in finance or across the wider enterprise, this episode offers a way to think about adoption through accountability, commercial discipline, and business purpose. The opportunity is to give teams useful support while keeping responsibility for outcomes clear. Please share your thoughts. How is your organization deciding which responsibilities to give AI agents, and what evidence would convince you that their autonomy is delivering value? Learn more about Basware