A human approach to finance, in conversation with ABBYY CFO Brian Unruh
September 8, 2026
Loading component...
Join the conversation
Every enterprise faces daily decisions that shape its long-term success. Brian's advice is a helpful reminder to look at the full picture before you act. Map your processes, find where data meets process, and apply the right tool for the right task to deliver real value. Then bring your people along for the journey through mentorship, honesty, and a shared North star.
Explore the minds keeping our innovation at the cutting edge by watching the Human Intelligence Series on YouTube. We post new conversations with ABBYY experts each month, so stay tuned.
For a demo of our purpose-built AI solutions, contact us via the ABBYY website.
What is process intelligence, and why does it matter for AI?
Process intelligence is the practice of analyzing how your business processes actually run, using real data rather than assumptions. It reveals bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and the exact points where automation or AI can add the most value. Process intelligence exposes where data meets process, which is precisely where AI delivers the greatest acceleration. ABBYY Process Intelligence gives organizations this clarity so they can apply AI strategically instead of guessing.
How does ABBYY help unite teams with better data?
ABBYY intelligent document processing turns unstructured and semi-structured content trapped in documents into structured, usable data. With ABBYY Vantage, teams extract and validate information from any document, in any format or language, then feed that clean data into analytics and decision frameworks. As Brian Unruh notes, this accelerates deep analytics and brings information together in a way that builds insights and unites teams.
How does ABBYY support ongoing growth within their teams?
ABBYY is committed to supporting its employees through ongoing training and certifications available through ABBYY University. The role-based technical trainings available offer in-depth knowledge of products and solutions within ABBYY’s portfolio of purpose-built AI tools. For more information about ABBYY University, visit: ABBYY Product Training & Certification | ABBYY University
How does ABBYY combine purpose-built AI with LLMs?
ABBYY pairs purpose-built AI with large language models in a hybrid approach that lets organizations apply LLM capabilities to business-critical workflows safely and at scale. Purpose-built AI delivers the accuracy, traceability, and compliance that high-stakes processes require, while LLMs add advanced summarization, contextual reasoning, and automated communication. Together they drive higher accuracy, smarter automation, and measurable business value.
What are ABBYY's core ethical AI principles?
ABBYY's customer approach relies on a foundation of trust, and a commitment to ethical AI that rests on six essential principles. These principles influence how we develop, build, and market AI solutions:
Transparency: Informing customers about our data security and trustworthy AI practices.
Fairness and bias mitigation: Striving to prevent biases in AI outputs.
Accountability: Ensuring responsibility for outcomes at every level.
Privacy and data protection: Prioritizing customer rights with stringent data sanctity.
Robustness and reliability: Applying industry standards, best practices, and regular auditing.
Human-centric design: Keeping customers' needs at the core of innovation.
You may imagine leading a global enterprise AI company’s finance and operations would consist of spreadsheets, forecasts, and quarterly targets. Brian Unruh, ABBYY's Chief Financial Officer, sees the role differently. For Brian, finance is really about problem-solving: spotting the right challenge, rallying people around a solution, and following through until it delivers real value.
That mindset traces back to his roots of training as an engineer before pivoting into accounting and finance, a path that taught him to combine analytical rigor with a genuine drive to solve problems. Today he brings that same curiosity to how ABBYY runs internally and how the company helps customers put their information to work.
We sat down with Brian to talk about mentorship, the real opportunity in AI, and why customers keep choosing ABBYY for the long game. His perspective fits perfectly within our ongoing YouTube series, "Human Intelligence Driving ABBYY Innovation."
Not every finance leader set out to become one, and that includes Brian.
He went to school to be an engineer and got halfway through before a moment of clarity changed his direction. "I feel like I want to solve problems, but this just isn't my passion." After talking it over with his counselor, the first problem Brian solved in his new career path was where to turn next. Engineering wasn’t a fit but Finance, on the other hand, genuinely excited him.
So, he pursued accounting with a computer science minor, then moved into public accounting during a period of major corporate transformation. Throughout each step of his career, he found himself at the center of every problem-solving meeting he could position himself within. He found himself working with US-based multinationals as they reorganized offshore, took advantage of shifts in the EU, and pursued location savings. Each new challenge pulled him further into complex problem-solving.
Brian’s blend of engineering logic, financial discipline, and orchestration skills is exactly what shapes his leadership at ABBYY today.
Mentorship and the 3 I's framework
Early in his career, Brian was fortunate to have a mentor who gave him a framework he still uses: the three I's. Identification, innovation, and implementation.
Here is how he breaks it down. Any one person tends to be strong in one of those areas. A smaller group excels in two. And a rare few are strong in all three. Recognizing where people fit helps you build balanced teams and move work forward. The real challenge, Brian notes, is momentum. Meetings often stall at the first stage. "Everyone wants to talk about the problem," he says, so the key is helping teams shift from identifying issues to actively innovating and implementing solutions. His belief is simple: "You always can get better."
That philosophy now shapes how ABBYY invests in its people. Through initiatives such as the mentor/mentee program at ABBYY, Brian is actively developing a collaborative environment where new employees feel acclimated and supported from day one. For him, it comes down to a phrase he holds close: pay it forward. With decades of expertise designing purposeful teams, Brian’s goal is to transfer his experience across the whole company, not just his own team.
"We have a goal. We have that North star. Let's go for it."
When experienced leaders guide others and give them room to grow, that trust ripples outward into stronger teams and better outcomes for customers – this is human intelligence in action.
"There's no AI without PI"
Brian has a memorable way of framing one of the most common mistakes he sees in AI strategy: "There's no AI without PI." In other words, there is no meaningful AI without process intelligence.
Many finance leaders jump straight to a narrow fix to a singular problem. His advice is to look horizontally first, before going vertical. Upskilling the whole enterprise to understand where AI can help reveals far more opportunity than tackling one isolated pain point.
Why does this matter so much? Because, as Brian puts it, "that exposes where data meets process, that's where AI exists." Understand your core data sets and your processes together, and you uncover where AI can genuinely accelerate results.
This is exactly where ABBYY Process Intelligence earns its place. By giving organizations a clear, data-driven view of how their processes actually run, it pinpoints bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and the precise moments where automation delivers the most value. Rather than guessing where to apply AI, teams get evidence. That horizontal lens then makes it far easier to target the right verticals, whether in accounts payable, accounts receivable, customer onboarding, or the many other workflows that connect teams across a company.
The practical lesson: map your processes first, then apply AI where data and process intersect. That is where scale and real acceleration happen.
AI's biggest opportunity: Insights that unite teams
When Brian looks at AI's potential, his focus remains on the insights AI provides rather than the flashy demos.
AI enables you to take a fresh look at your processes and see where it can accelerate decision-making. Sometimes that means brainstorming new thoughts and ideas, and other times it can surface patterns you were not even aware of, especially when you combine unstructured and semi-structured data. The result is a powerful look into deep analytics and opening data in a way that can unite teams through shared understanding.
Much of that valuable information sits locked inside documents in formats that traditional processing struggles with. This is where ABBYY intelligent document processing (IDP) turns trapped content into structured, usable data.
With ABBYY Document AI, organizations extract and validate information from virtually any document, in any format or language, then feed that clean data into analytics and decision frameworks. Combined with a hybrid approach that pairs purpose-built AI with large language models, teams gain both advanced capability and the accuracy they can trust supporting all document types, in any format or language, then feed that clean data into analytics and decision frameworks.
A hybrid approach that pairs purpose-built AI with large language models enables teams to gain both advanced capabilities and the accuracy they can trust. document, in any format or language, then feed that clean data into analytics and decision frameworks. Combined with a hybrid approach that pairs purpose-built AI with large language models, teams gain both advanced capability and the accuracy they can trust.
Brian also points to something ABBYY takes seriously: living the promise internally. "We're experiencing internally as customer zero exactly what we're providing to our customers," he says. When a company uses its own technology to unite teams and accelerate decisions, it understands firsthand the value customers receive.
Why customers choose ABBYY
We closed our conversation with a straightforward question: why do customers choose ABBYY? Brian's answer was just as direct.
"I think customers choose ABBYY because we're honest," he says. "And we're always there for them." He describes a relationship built on genuine partnership, an approach that earns ABBYY a role customers value: trusted advisor. Part of that trust comes from a deliberate commitment. "We've chosen the path of compliance. We value that," Brian says. "We're in here for the long game and they know that."
As the landscape moves week over week due to the rapid advances in generative AI and the growing use of large and small language models, through all of it, ABBYY stays grounded. With over 35 years of experience leading the market in AI powered document understanding, customers understand that ABBYY is here for the long run.
Follow ABBYY
Tag a friend
SUBSCRIBE FOR INSIGHTS
Stay updated on the latest news, change your communications or opt-in preferences.
