Most businesses in the UAE are not short on AI ambition. They have the strategies, the roadmaps, and the internal conversations about transformation. What they are often missing is the step that actually matters: execution. Knowing that AI can improve your operations and knowing where to start are two very different things. That gap is exactly what the new partnership between NEXA AI Lab and Qashio is designed to close.
Qashio is the UAE's leading spend management platform, helping businesses manage corporate cards, expenses, and financial workflows in one place. NEXA AI Lab is the AI division of NEXA, one of MENA's leading digital growth agencies, focused on making AI implementation practical, measurable, and specific to the way a business actually operates.
Together, the two companies are working to bring AI into the financial workflows of UAE businesses in a way that delivers visible, immediate results. The partnership includes a free AI audit for finance teams, identifying exactly where automation can reduce friction, save time, and improve decision making without requiring a complete overhaul of existing systems.
A global industry survey found that 81% of financial institutions expect AI to be embedded in their core operations by 2030. The UAE is already one of the fastest growing AI markets in the world, and the businesses moving now are the ones that will set the new baseline for competitiveness.
Qashio has already integrated AI directly into its own financial workflows. Its AI powered receipt capture automatically extracts TRN numbers, vendor names, and transaction data, reducing manual entry, saving finance teams more than four hours every week, and maintaining cleaner, more reliable records. This is not experimental technology. It is live, it is working, and the impact is measurable.
One of the clearest lessons from AI adoption across industries is that the businesses seeing real returns are not the ones that spent the longest time planning. They are the ones that found the highest impact entry points and moved quickly.
Finance is one of the most natural places to start. Expense management, receipt processing, spend visibility, and approval workflows are all areas where manual effort is high, error risk is real, and the case for automation is straightforward. When AI is built directly into the tools a finance team uses every day, the value is not hypothetical. It shows up in hours saved, data accuracy, and faster decision making at every level of the business.
NEXA AI Lab brings the implementation expertise to make that transition smooth. Through tools like ConvoAI, businesses benefit from instant data access and round the clock support, removing friction from operations that previously depended entirely on working hours and manual input. Qashio is already leveraging NEXA AI Lab products, and the results reflect a broader shift toward always on, AI enabled financial operations.
The UAE has set a clear national target: full public sector AI integration by 2031. The private sector pressure that comes alongside that is already being felt. Businesses that treat AI are increasingly at a disadvantage against those building it into operations today.
This partnership is designed specifically for businesses that are ready to move from awareness to action. Whether that means starting with a single workflow, running an audit to understand where the highest impact opportunities sit, or building a broader AI roadmap, the goal is the same: practical implementation that delivers real results.
As part of this partnership, NEXA AI Lab and Qashio are offering a free AI audit for finance teams across the UAE. The audit identifies specific areas where AI can deliver immediate operational value, giving businesses a clear, prioritised starting point rather than a generic framework.