Every year, more than 70,000 invoices pass through Cirque du Soleil, without interruption

Each Cirque du Soleil tour operates as a mobile profit center with its own management. At the helm, SAP has developed Genato, a multilingual AI agent that now works closely with the Accounts Payable team.

Artists defying the laws of gravity, breathtaking costumes, mesmerizing music, and moments that seem almost unreal. But behind every performance lies an equally remarkable reality: a highly complex global business organization.

Cirque du Soleil has reinvented the circus arts. The company has become a global leader in live entertainment, performing for more than 365 million spectators in 90 countries. Today, there are 38 shows in cities around the world, supported by more than 4,000 artists and technicians from over 80 countries.

Each tour operates as a mobile profit center. A production might be presented in Mexico City, then in London, then in Brussels. Each one involves new companies, new employees, new assets, new tax obligations, and new local regulations—not to mention performers from dozens of different countries.

Invoices: The Top Topic of Discussions with Suppliers

As Philippe Lalumière, Vice President of Information Technology at Cirque du Soleil, explains, “People underestimate how complex it is to run a circus! ”

This is particularly true for the company’s accounts payable department. Every year, more than 70,000 invoices pass through Cirque du Soleil, nonstop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. About 40% of supplier inquiries concern the status of invoices. Responding to these inquiries was far from simple. Accounts payable specialists had to search through various systems, review invoice histories, understand payment statuses, determine the causes of delays, and respond manually.

This work was repetitive, time-consuming, and exhausting. “From a morale standpoint, receiving emails from suppliers—sometimes a bit rude as they ask: ‘When are we going to get paid?’ is no picnic,” explains Philippe Lalumière.

Identifying the Right Problem to Solve: AI in Action

As an SAP customer for over 25 years, Cirque du Soleil knows exactly how to leverage technology to manage its operations—and to reinvent them.

As a pioneer and leader in digital transformation, Cirque du Soleil was approached by SAP AppHaus to address a key question: How could SAP’s generative AI technology improve its business processes?

The answer emerged from collaborative workshops bringing together SAP, Cirque du Soleil’s IT team, and users from its various departments. Accounts payable quickly emerged as the top priority due to its streamlined structure, high volume of interactions, and clear potential for automation. This choice was part of the company’s overall evolution. In other words, accounts payable automation is one of the most widespread use cases for AI across all industries.

Seizing this opportunity, Cirque du Soleil and SAP moved from concept to implementation, developing an AI-based solution that automated accounts payable processes and improved responsiveness.

AI Takes the Stage: From Vision to Reality

The workshops led to much more than just an automation project. They gave rise to Genato, a multilingual AI agent who now works closely with the Accounts Payable team.

This multilingual agent analyzes the Accounts Payable inbox. It assesses the tone of the messages, identifies urgency, and extracts invoice numbers from messages and attachments. It then connects to SAP data to determine the status of invoices. Immediately afterward, it drafts a response for human approval. If it cannot find an invoice or resolve a request, it flags the issue.

“At first, we were concerned about the reliability of the agent’s responses,” explains Philippe Lalumière. “But the team quickly realized that the information provided by Genato was highly accurate.”

Thanks to Genato and the Accounts Payable team, Cirque du Soleil now benefits from more efficient service for its vast global network of suppliers.

Philippe Lalumière is, however, adamant: “AI is certainly a very powerful tool, but it’s not magic. Integrating it into our processes won’t solve all our problems. It takes work.”

The impact was almost immediate

This work included designing tailored connectors and integrating them with the company’s SAP and accounts payable systems via the SAP Business AI platform. This enterprise AI infrastructure brings together capabilities and technologies (such as SAP Business Data Cloud, business transformation management solutions, and SAP Business AI), thereby unifying AI, data, process context, and governance.

This enables customers to design, integrate, deploy, and operate AI with significant business impact, while ensuring the solution’s sustainability and profitability.

The impact was almost immediate. Generative AI began prioritizing urgent supplier requests, extracting information from invoices, drafting responses, and automatically translating communications, resulting in measurable improvements within the accounts payable department.

The results? A 97.92% improvement in the processing of priority requests, a 25% reduction in delays for supplier orders, and a 25% reduction in response times for non-urgent requests!

What’s more, the impact on employees has been significant. By lightening the team’s workload—freeing them from repetitive research and the sometimes emotionally taxing task of following up with suppliers—Genato has become much more than just a tool. “We now use Genato as an essential work tool.”