Rivian’s AI Agents Cut 15 Days From Every Close

Electric vehicle maker Rivian has automated a tedious corporate finance task using an artificial intelligence system, cutting over 15 days of manual work per financial reporting cycle, as reported by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in an Aug. 13 blog post. Senior director of Rivian's global finance systems, Yogesh Yadav, said the partnership with AWS and the AI-powered automation for purchase order accruals marks a significant shift in the company's finance operations.

The accounting challenge revolves around custom tooling for car manufacturing, which can take up to two years to build but often incurs a bill 18 months or later after the order. Accounting rules require gradual recognition of these costs, not all at once upon invoice receipt. Rivian and AWS opted against hard-coded automation rules that would require constant updates when policies changed.

Instead, they stored Rivian's real accounting procedures as plain-written instructions that the AI could read directly, eliminating the need for ongoing software development. This setup enables Rivian to update the process without altering any code. When finance managers need to adjust a rule, they simply modify the written instructions, and the AI incorporates the change the next time it runs.

The system monitors new purchase orders, verifies required information, notifies the appropriate personnel via email, calculates owed amounts, and drafts accounting entries, which still require human approval before becoming official. This intentional human oversight ensures compliance with internal controls and satisfies external auditors, who found the new process easier to trace than the replaced spreadsheets.

While the human approval step remains essential, correcting any AI errors feeds back into the written instructions, reducing the likelihood of future mistakes. Rivian completed the proof of concept in five weeks and has since implemented the system, planning to apply the same approach to other finance tasks. According to PYMNTS Intelligence reports from December, 45% of chief financial officers now use AI in structured, rules-based finance areas like working capital monitoring and cash flow tracking.

Additionally, 66% of accounts payable teams reported an increase in manual workload over the previous year, a challenge Rivian aims to alleviate with its AI-driven solution.