Qashio and NEXA Partner to Transform UAE Finance with AI Integration

There’s no shortage of talk about AI in the UAE these days. Every panel, every pitch deck, every strategy document seems to mention it. But when it comes to actually embedding AI into day-to-day finance work, well… that’s where many companies still hit a wall.

Qashio, a UAE-based spend management platform, is now teaming up with NEXA AI Lab, the artificial intelligence arm of digital growth agency NEXA, to push things beyond the buzzwords. The two companies have announced a partnership aimed at helping finance teams across the UAE automate workflows, improve spend visibility and reduce the manual grind that still eats up hours every week.

At the heart of the collaboration is a practical focus: moving businesses from AI awareness to actual implementation. As part of the initiative, finance teams will be offered a free AI audit designed to pinpoint where automation and AI tools can create immediate operational value. The idea is to identify quick wins first, then support wider adoption across the organisation. That approach, I reckon, is spot on. AI without execution is just a slide in a presentation.

Amit Vyas, CEO of NEXA, highlighted that AI creates real impact when it is embedded into everyday workflows rather than treated as a standalone concept. He pointed to finance as one of the clearest functions where this shift is already underway, especially as companies face increasing pressure to make decisions in real time. Through the partnership with Qashio, he said the aim is to help organisations apply AI in practical, high-impact ways within financial operations.

From Qashio’s side, CEO Armin Moradi referenced a global industry survey indicating that 81% of financial institutions expect AI to be fully integrated into their core operations by 2030. He noted that the UAE is among the fastest-growing AI markets globally, setting a new competitive benchmark for the private sector. According to him, the partnership is meant to close the gap between AI ambition and real execution, supporting both enterprises and SMEs in competing at an international level.

That gap between strategy and action is a bit of a faff for many startups. At Arageek, we often hear founders say they “plan to use AI” but struggle to define how, exactly, it fits into accounting, compliance or treasury management. And believe it or not, finance is often left behind while marketing experiments with chatbots and content tools. This move by Qashio and NEXA AI Lab tries to flip that script.

Qashio has already begun weaving AI into its own product. One example is its AI-powered receipt capture feature, which extracts key data automatically, including TRN numbers, vendor names and transaction details. The company says this can save finance teams more than four hours each week while also helping maintain cleaner, more reliable financial records. Four hours may not sound revolutionary. But over a year? That’s a serious productivity boost, especially for lean teams.

On the flip side, implementing AI in finance must be done carefully. Automation touches sensitive data and compliance-heavy processes, and not every shiny tool delivers what it promises. I’m not a fan of AI being treated as a magic wand. It isn’t. Governance, training and change management matter just as much as the algorithm itself.

NEXA brings experience in digital transformation across industries, and both companies are also using tools such as ConvoAI to enable round-the-clock access to data and support. This reflects a broader shift towards always-on operations powered by AI, aligning neatly with the UAE’s national AI strategy, which targets full public sector AI integration by 2031.

For founders and finance leaders in the UAE, the message is clear: AI in finance is no longer optional window dressing. It’s fast becoming a baseline expectation. The real question is not whether to adopt it, but how to do so in a way that is measurable, secure and definately impactful.

If this partnership manages to help companies move from experimentation to execution, it could quietly set a new standard for how finance teams operate in the region. And in a market moving as quickly as the UAE, standing still is simply not an option, is it?

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