Shadow Spend
40–60% of spend originates informally. Slack messages, email threads, verbal commitments. It never touches the ERP until after the money is already promised.
Intake Agent · Part of Blackbee AI
Every Spend Request.Every Channel.One Decision.
The Intake Agent is Blackbee AI's front door. It reads spend intent from Slack, email, Teams, or any system, and converts it into a structured, policy-evaluated financial decision. No forms. No procurement knowledge required. No manual triage.
Any channelZero formsExplainable every time
See It Work
From Slack Message to
Structured Decision in Seconds.
Watch the Intake Agent process a real spend request, from unstructured intent to a fully classified, policy-evaluated financial decision.
Intake Agent · Live Classification
LiveIncoming · #procurement
Sarah KEngineering Lead
Hey, we need to get 3 new servers for the data pipeline we're building. Urgent.
Reading intent…
Intake Agent · Analyzing
Request typePurchase Request
CategoryIT Infrastructure / Servers
Economic typeCapExCapital Policy Applies
PO requiredYesExceeds threshold
Risk levelMediumNew vendor category
Classification confidence0%
Decision made
This is a CapEx IT hardware request requiring a PO. Routing for CFO approval per policy.
HandoffCommit AgentCFO
Agent reasoning: “This request was classified as CapEx IT infrastructure. PO is required and CFO approval is mandatory per active policy.”
Where It Listens
Every Channel Your Team
Already Uses.
The Intake Agent doesn't require employees to change how they work. It listens where requests already happen, and brings them into a single governed pipeline.
SlackMicrosoft TeamsEmailAPI / Automation toolsERP system events
The Problem
The Problem
In most organisations, a spend request triggers a chain of manual work before a single financial decision is made. Someone fills out a form, or doesn't, and uses Slack instead. Someone else decides whether it needs a PO. A third person works out who should approve it. A fourth chases the approval.
None of this requires human judgment. All of it consumes human time.
Classification Burden
Employees shouldn't need to know the difference between CapEx and OpEx, PO and non-PO, or which cost centre applies. But they do, because the system makes them decide.
Approval Overload
Every ambiguous request routes to a human. Teams approve everything 'just in case' because the system can't tell low-risk from high-risk.
What It Does
It Answers One Question First:
What Is This and What
Should Happen Next?
The Intake Agent doesn't process transactions. It classifies intent. It reads the request, evaluates it across multiple dimensions simultaneously, and produces a structured financial decision, before any downstream agent touches it.
01 · Intent Detection
Is this a financial request?
The agent distinguishes purchase requests from noise. Informational messages, non-actionable queries, and system events that require no financial action.
02 · Request Classification
What type of request is this?
Invoice, purchase request, PO, payment intent, amendment, or cancellation, classified automatically with a confidence score attached.
03 · PO Determination
Does this need a PO?
Based on category, amount, vendor type, and policy. The agent decides Yes, No, or Unknown (requires escalation). No manual judgment required.
04 · CapEx vs OpEx
What is the economic category?
Goods, services, subscription, capital expenditure detected from the request context and mapped to the correct financial treatment automatically.
05 · Risk Assessment
What is the risk level?
Low, medium, or high confidence based on amount, vendor history, category norms, and policy signals. Determines whether the request routes automatically or needs review.
06 · Downstream Routing
Which agent takes over?
Purchase request → Commit Agent (PO). Invoice → Parse Agent. Payment intent → Route Agent. High risk or ambiguity → human review. Ownership is always explicit.
Five Ways It Decides
Every Request Type.
One Agent.
The Intake Agent handles five distinct request scenarios, each with a different decision outcome. No manual routing. No exception queues.
Auto-Approved
Input
"I need a $200/month analytics tool"
Decision
SaaS subscription · OpEx · Below threshold · Auto-approved
Low-risk software subscription under configured threshold. No PO or approval triggered.
Explainability
Every Decision.
Fully Explained.
The Intake Agent never makes a silent decision. Every classification produces a human-readable explanation, visible to the requester, the finance team, and the audit log.
Request Decision Summary
#REQ-8841- Request
- 3 servers for data pipeline
- Classified as
- CapEx IT infrastructure
- Policy applied
- CapEx Routing Policy v2
- Confidence
- 87%
Agent Reasoning
This request was classified as capital expenditure based on hardware-category signals and amount magnitude. A PO is required per policy. CFO approval has been triggered automatically.
Visible toRequesterFinance TeamProcurementAudit Log
Simulation Mode
Change Policy Safely.
See the Impact Before It's Live.
Finance teams can simulate policy changes before applying them. Adjust a threshold, change a PO requirement, modify a CapEx rule, the Intake Agent replays historical requests under the new conditions and shows exactly what would change.
What if…
We raise the non-PO threshold from $5,000 to $7,500?
21% fewer POs triggered
What if…
We require POs for all software subscriptions?
44 additional POs per month
What if…
We auto-approve all known-vendor renewals?
18 approval requests eliminated per month
Agent Handoffs
The Intake Agent Decides.
Then Hands Off.
The Intake Agent does not execute. It classifies and routes. Once a decision is made, ownership transfers explicitly to the right downstream agent.
If no PO is required and no downstream action is needed, the Intake Agent intentionally does nothing. Restraint is a design principle.
Get Started
See the Intake Agent
Process Your Requests.
We'll show you exactly how the Intake Agent handles your organisation's spend patterns, live, in your ERP environment.
Next: Procurement & PO Agent →EXPLORE MORE