Cirque du Soleil has implemented an AI-enabled invoice assistant from SAP to streamline accounts payable operations, accelerating response times and improving supplier experiences across its global live entertainment business.
SAP SE has announced that Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group, the global leader in live entertainment, has implemented an AI-enabled invoice assistant to help streamline its accounts payable operations, bringing greater speed, transparency and agility to a highly complex global business.
Enabled by SAP Business AI and built on SAP Business Technology Platform, the assistant is already delivering faster response times, enhanced supplier experiences and smooth multilingual automation. For Cirque du Soleil, whose business model blends creativity, logistics and constant motion, the solution is helping finance operations perform with the same precision as its world-famous acrobatics.
A global operation that never stands still
With 38 shows running simultaneously across cities around the world, Cirque du Soleil’s operational footprint rivals that of a multinational enterprise. Its workforce of nearly 4,000 artists and staff representing 80 nationalities supports resident shows, touring productions and creative studios, each with unique vendor relationships and financial processes.
Behind the scenes, that scale translates into significant financial complexity. Cirque du Soleil processes more than 70,000 supplier invoices annually, many of them from tour-supporting vendors who rely on timely payments to keep productions running smoothly.
For the accounts payable team, this volume created growing pressure. Nearly 40% of incoming inquiries came from vendors asking about invoice status, payment timing or discrepancies. Each inquiry required manual research across systems, often with limited visibility, resulting in delayed responses and frustration on both sides.
The challenge: Manual effort, limited visibility
Before automation, responding to a single invoice inquiry could take up to 30 minutes. Team members needed to search for invoice data, verify payment status, understand exceptions and craft responses, often switching between languages depending on the supplier.
As invoice volumes increased, so did the risk of delays, inconsistencies and employee burnout. Cirque du Soleil recognized that maintaining agility would require a fundamentally new approach, one that could scale without adding headcount.
Turning to SAP Business AI
To address these challenges, Cirque du Soleil partnered with SAP to deploy an AI-enabled invoice assistant powered by SAP Business AI.
The assistant automates the entire triage-and-response process for invoice-related emails. Incoming messages are automatically analyzed, regardless of language and categorized by request type. The system extracts relevant invoice details, determines the invoice status and even analyzes sentiment, enabling urgent or frustrated inquiries to be prioritised.
Once the analysis is complete, the assistant generates a proposed response in both English and French, dramatically reducing response time while maintaining consistency and accuracy.
The result: average handling time has dropped from 30 minutes to just two minutes per inquiry.
‘Simply stunning’ results
“The time-consuming research required to identify the payment status of an invoice and its reason was overwhelming,” said Philippe Lalumière, vice president of information technology, Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group. “We were looking for a more efficient way to handle this, and SAP Business AI provided us with a simply stunning answer.”
At the technical level, the assistant leverages SAP HANA Cloud to store and process structured data derived from emails, analysis outputs and generated responses. SAP AI Core supports intelligent automation, enabling advanced capabilities such as urgency detection, sentiment analysis and identification of recurring payment issues.
This architecture ensures that automation is not only fast but also trustworthy, secure and deeply integrated with Cirque du Soleil’s existing SAP landscape.
Improving supplier relationships at scale
For Cirque du Soleil, faster responses are about more than efficiency. They directly impact supplier trust. Vendors supporting live productions often operate under tight timelines, making payment visibility critical.
By delivering timely, standardised and accurate responses, the invoice assistant has significantly improved supplier satisfaction. Multilingual capabilities further strengthen inclusivity, allowing suppliers from different regions to interact naturally and confidently with Cirque du Soleil’s finance team.
Data and AI in perfect balance
For SAP, the Cirque du Soleil implementation highlights how business data and AI can work together to deliver measurable impact.
“As we partner with Cirque du Soleil on this transformative journey, it’s inspiring to see how technology is streamlining operations and focusing organizations even more on what they do best, delivering unforgettable experiences,” said Dr. Philipp Herzig, Chief Technology Officer and Chief AI Officer at SAP SE. “This is a perfect example of how data and AI can unlock both creativity and efficiency.”
The solution also provides a foundation for future innovation, enabling Cirque du Soleil to expand automation into additional finance and operational processes as the organisation continues to evolve.
Agility beyond the stage
Known worldwide for redefining live entertainment, Cirque du Soleil continues to set new standards not only on stage but behind the scenes as well. By embracing SAP Business AI, the company is demonstrating how intelligent automation can support resilience, scalability and agility, even in the most dynamic industries.
As Cirque du Soleil grows its global footprint, SAP remains a trusted partner, helping ensure that operational excellence keeps pace with creative ambition and that every performance, both seen and unseen, runs seamlessly.
