AP / AR
The self-clearing inbox
What if invoices read themselves? AI extracts, matches to POs, and files the clean ones — humans only see the exceptions.
Doc AI · matching rules · workflow bot
An internal TELUS Finance event · Fall 2026
The future of finance is friendly.
One challenge. Every finance process on the table. Bring the part of your job that drives you up the wall, borrow the AI toolkit, and design the fix — no coding required.
The one question
How can we leverage AI to transform our finance processes?
That's the whole brief. If your answer saves hours, cuts risk, or makes the close less painful — it belongs in this challenge.
The playing field
Any finance process at TELUS is fair game — pick the one that hurts the most and reimagine it with AI in the loop.
In play
- Accounts payable & receivable
- Month-end close & reconciliations
- Planning, budgeting & forecasting
- Procurement & vendor management
- Compliance, audit & controls
- Management reporting & analysis
Ground rules
- Build with approved TELUS AI tools and sandboxes
- Synthetic or anonymized data only — never customer PII
- Keep a human in the loop for every decision that matters
- Extend our existing systems — no rip-and-replace fantasies
Idea starters — steal one
No idea yet? No problem. Any of these nine would make a strong entry — or bring your own pain point and go rogue.
The essentials
- Who can join
- Every Finance employee — AP, AR, FP&A, controllership, procurement, tax, treasury — plus cross-functional partners from IT, data, product and operations. Each team needs at least one Finance member; everyone else is welcome on the roster.
- Teams
- 3–6 people. No team yet? Register solo and we'll match you at the team-formation mixer — process brains and builder brains both needed.
- Time commitment
- About 10% of your time across the two sprint weeks, with your leader's blessing. Office hours with AI coaches run all sprint. Evenings optional, never required.
- Format
- Hybrid — kickoff and Demo Day live at TELUS Garden, Vancouver, streamed on Teams. Build wherever you work.
- Cost
- Nothing but curiosity. Toolkit, sandboxes, coaching and snacks are on us.
How it's scored
Five criteria, one hundred points. A panel of Finance leadership and TELUS AI practice leads scores every demo; a people's-choice vote breaks ties.
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Business impact
30%Hours saved, risk reduced, dollars unlocked — measured, not vibes.
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Feasibility & scale
25%Could ship on the TELUS stack within two quarters, and grow beyond one team.
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Innovation
20%A genuinely new use of AI for the process — not a chatbot sticker on a spreadsheet.
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Responsible AI
15%Privacy, security, explainability, and a human in the loop where it counts.
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Demo & story
10%A working demo and a crisp story. Slideware alone won't fly.
What the winners take home
Win the budget to build it for real.
10,000
Bravo points for the winning team
- Project funding — a sponsored budget and dedicated time to take your prototype into production with the owning process team.
- 10,000 Bravo points — TELUS's recognition currency, straight to the winning team.
- An executive sponsor — your project presented at the Finance leadership table, with you in the room.
The road to Demo Day
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Jul 28
Registration opens
You're looking at it. Grab your team — or come solo.
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Sep 11
Registration closes
Rosters lock at 5pm PT. No stragglers, even cute ones.
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Sep 14
Kickoff + toolkit drop
Live at TELUS Garden and on Teams. Sandboxes, approved AI tools, and datasets land in your inbox.
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Sep 17
Team-formation mixer
Solo registrants get matched. Idea wall opens for browsing and borrowing.
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Sep 14–25
Build sprint
Two weeks, ~10% of your time. Daily office hours with AI coaches from the TELUS AI practice.
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Sep 28
Submissions due
A three-minute demo video and a one-pager: the problem, the fix, the impact.
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Oct 2
Demo Day 🏆
Live demos, live judging, winners crowned. Bravo points rain from the ceiling (fiscally responsibly).
Fair questions
Do I need to know how to code?
No. The toolkit includes low-code and no-code options, and the best teams pair process experts with builders. Knowing where the process hurts is a superpower — bring that.
I'm not in Finance — can I still join?
Yes! The challenge is open to cross-functional partners across TELUS — IT, data, product, ops and beyond. Each team just needs at least one Finance member to keep the problem honest.
How much time will this take?
Plan for about 10% of your time across the two sprint weeks — leader-approved as part of registration. Office hours and coaching happen inside working hours. Evenings are optional, never expected.
What data are we allowed to use?
Sandboxes come pre-loaded with synthetic and anonymized datasets that mirror our real processes. Customer PII and production financials never go into non-approved tools — that's a scoring criterion, not just a rule.
Which AI tools can we build with?
The approved TELUS AI toolkit: our internal LLM gateway, secure model sandboxes, and the low-code automation platforms Finance already licenses. The full menu (with access instructions) drops at kickoff.
What happens to the winning project?
It gets funded and sponsored into production with the process team that owns it — and you stay involved. The point of the prize is that your prototype ships.
Can I register without an idea?
Absolutely. Steal an idea starter above, browse the idea wall after kickoff, or join the mixer and adopt a team that has one. Ideas are the cheap part — execution wins.
What are Bravo points, exactly?
Bravo is TELUS's recognition program — points redeem for merchandise, experiences and gift cards in the Bravo catalogue. The winning team splits nothing: it's 10,000 points to the team's prize pool, celebrated loudly.
Who owns what we build?
Like all work products, anything built for the challenge is TELUS IP — and the credit is permanently yours. Winning teams present to Finance leadership with their names on the slide, not ours.
Count yourself in
Two minutes now, a funded project later. Registration closes Sep 11, 5pm PT.
