How Brex is Embracing AI Tools to Stay Ahead
In today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, companies are under increasing pressure to adopt artificial intelligence solutions that can drive efficiency and innovation. But keeping up with the pace of AI isn’t easy—especially when traditional software procurement cycles take months. That’s exactly the challenge Brex, the corporate credit card and financial management startup, faced. Rather than risk falling behind, the company revamped its entire process. The new Brex AI strategy is built around flexibility, fast adoption, and employee-driven decision-making—an approach that’s setting a new standard for how startups can work with cutting-edge tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and other generative AI solutions.
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As more startups and enterprises grapple with the "AI adoption gap," Brex took a unique route: embracing the "messiness" of fast-moving innovation. This strategy didn’t just speed things up—it also gave Brex a competitive edge. Their leadership, particularly CTO James Reggio, understood that waiting six months to approve a tool could mean missing the window where that tool actually delivers value. So instead of forcing AI tools through outdated review systems, Brex redesigned its internal framework to keep pace with innovation—without compromising security or legal compliance.
Rethinking Procurement: A Key Part of the Brex AI Strategy
The problem was clear: Brex’s traditional procurement cycle was too slow to keep up with AI’s rapid development. According to CTO James Reggio, the company had to abandon its old, linear process of evaluating software. “By the time we got approval to test a new tool, our team had already moved on,” he explained. This disconnect between the pace of internal processes and the fast evolution of AI tools led Brex to overhaul its legal and procurement framework.
Their first step was building a more agile system to evaluate AI tools. This included pre-approved legal templates for data processing and compliance, so new tools could move from evaluation to testing in a matter of weeks, not months. The revised workflow allowed Brex to experiment more freely and empower its teams to explore and pilot emerging tools without getting buried in red tape. This also made it easier to pivot or drop tools that didn’t add value—something critical in a landscape where AI tools often change overnight.
By cutting bureaucracy and building AI-specific procurement protocols, the Brex AI strategy evolved into a model of operational agility. It also ensured employees had access to transformative technologies when they needed them, not after the moment had passed. This proactive stance reflects a broader industry shift toward continuous experimentation in AI integration—especially for startups trying to stay lean and innovative.
The Superhuman Test: Letting Employees Lead AI Adoption
One of the most notable parts of the Brex AI strategy is its “superhuman product-market-fit test.” Unlike traditional models where executives or IT leaders dictate software decisions, Brex allows its employees to lead the charge. If a tool meaningfully boosts productivity—makes someone feel “superhuman”—it passes the test and moves forward in the adoption process.
This user-centric approach not only helps identify the best AI tools faster but also increases buy-in across the company. Employees are more likely to adopt a tool they’ve tested and love. Plus, the people using the tools daily are best positioned to assess whether it drives real results. Reggio emphasized that tools showing early success in hands-on use get prioritized for wider deployment. It’s a powerful way to match technological promise with actual workplace impact.
By trusting employees and reducing gatekeeping, Brex taps into grassroots innovation—a hallmark of effective AI transformation. This aligns with growing trends in 2025, where teams across finance, marketing, and operations are choosing their own AI copilots, productivity boosters, and workflow assistants rather than waiting on top-down directives.
Why Brex’s AI Strategy Is a Model for Modern Startups
Brex isn’t just surviving the AI boom—it’s thriving by adapting its culture and systems to meet the moment. Its flexible procurement process, employee-led evaluations, and focus on practical value make its AI strategy especially relevant for startups, scale-ups, and even more traditional enterprises seeking to stay relevant in a fast-changing market.
The Brex AI strategy is a reminder that embracing AI isn’t just about plugging in the latest tool—it’s about changing how your organization operates. Speed, flexibility, and user feedback are now just as important as security and compliance. And while AI is messy, that messiness is exactly where innovation lives.
Startups that want to remain competitive in 2025 and beyond must take a page from Brex: Build systems that evolve alongside the technology, empower your teams to explore, and remove the bottlenecks that slow innovation down. It’s not about having all the answers—it's about staying curious, adaptive, and open to change. Brex’s playbook shows exactly how to do that.
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