WITH VOLKMAR AHRENS
When a Winning Product Creates Losers
Volkmar Ahrens had built what large finance teams spent twenty years asking for. The hard part was finding someone inside who wanted it.
His AI agents post supplier invoices in SAP without human touch. The accountants and managers who must approve a rollout see their own work in what gets automated, and sales cycles stretch past a year. The panel took on one question: how do you turn a winning technology into something the people inside want?
SEP12Volkmar
Ahrens
CO-FOUNDER, NXT4AP
Technology × Adoption
WHO WINS WHEN THE WORK DISAPPEARS?A product that works. A rollout that stalls.
Volkmar is the co-founder of nxt4ap, a Singapore company developing autonomous AI agents for accounts payable within SAP. He brings over 20 years of experience in business process automation, with work spanning global enterprises including Holcim, BMW and Caterpillar.
He told the panel the technology was not the problem. He said his agents can take a supplier invoice from receipt to posting in SAP in about 30 seconds, with dedicated agents increasingly handling the exceptions. The problem was everyone around the decision. Shared service teams could see their own work disappearing, middle managers had little reason to push, and senior leaders liked the numbers but were wary of AI. With sales cycles of 12 to 18 months, he asked how to give the people who must drive the change a reason to support it, and how to turn that support into adoption fast enough for a small company to afford.
Who wins when the work disappears
Christian framed the problem bluntly: a winning technology that creates losers. The teams whose tasks are automated feel they stand to lose, and the question was how to turn them into winners. He argued this was not only nxt4ap's problem but one facing every organization adopting AI.
Tasks go away. Jobs change.
Stephen drew a line between tasks and jobs. Checking invoices by eye is a task software should do, and the people doing it can move to work that needs human judgment. He compared a fully automated organization to a self-driving car, and suggested presenting nxt4ap as a first step towards it that companies can take today.
Acceptance is the force multiplier
AJ focused on the people inside. Change moves at the speed the culture allows: when people feel safe, understand where the organization is going and have a hand in how it gets there, they contribute even when their role is changing. His best strategies, he said, have always come from involving the people closest to the work.
A proof of concept, not a cost cut
The ideas converged. Every company has accounts payable, and it sits outside their core business, so it is a safe place to prove AI adoption end to end. Framed that way, the win moves from shareholders back to the leadership team, and the freed people and budget become the start of a wider AI transformation. Christian suggested the biggest winner inside could be the head of HR.
Where the session landed
Volkmar said the conversation changed how he would pitch. He plans to open his upcoming training for reseller partners across Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America with a new line: accounts payable in SAP is solved, so put it aside and ask what the organization can learn from it. It is a narrative to test, not a result yet. He agreed to report back, and the team plans a follow-up conversation.
Built something that works, but can't get it adopted?
Tell us what you've built, who has to say yes, and what keeps them from saying it. We'll work it in the open.