For years, finance teams have wrestled with a simple question: Where is the money going and why? The answers have been obscured by fragmented systems, disconnected contracts, and invoice processes that resist clarity. These aren’t just technical problems; they are structural barriers to better decisions. 

SpendBrain is SIB’s answer to the complexity of modern spend. Built alongside clients, we create AI IP for our clients and a spend ontology that connects contracts, invoices, and vendor data into an internal unified system. SpendBrain reveals where money is leaking and gives teams the structure to fix it, transforming cost reduction into a repeatable process built to last. 

Shannon Copeland Elevates Cost Reduction to a Strategic Discipline 

Cost reduction has too often been treated as a last-minute scramble, cutting obvious expenses or rushing to renegotiate vendor contracts just to close a budget gap or make quarterly numbers. Under Shannon Copeland’s leadership, it’s being redefined as a disciplined process of exposing areas of spend that have been overlooked, fragmented, or too disconnected to evaluate clearly. This is where acute AI comes in as a targeted tool that connects the dots and finds what humans miss bringing buried inefficiencies to the surface. 

Copeland joined SIB in April 2024 and wasted no time challenging assumptions, pushing boundaries, and aligning the company’s capabilities with its next-gen mission: make finance intelligent, transparent, and self-funded. He brings over 27 years of leadership experience spanning Accenture, N3, Deloitte, and Chevron. At N3, Copeland built an AI-based agent assist platform that helped secure a landmark acquisition by Accenture in 2020, where he was a Managing Director and the Offering & AI Lead for Accenture Song’s global B2B growth practice. 

Now at SIB, Copeland is using that same disruptive energy to reshape the cost reduction and procurement space. 

“Our mission is to fuel a culture of growth by unlocking the hidden capital inside spend. SpendBrain is more than a platform, it's a shift in mindset” says Copeland. “It’s about building institutional memory, turning cost control from reactive to proactive, and giving every finance team the power to grow with discipline.” 

Why SpendBrain Matters Now 

Today’s finance leaders don’t need another platform that promises “visibility” and delivers static charts. They need a system that thinks ahead, connects the dots, and lets them ask the questions that keep CFOs up at night: 

• Are we being overcharged? 
• Are our contract terms actually being followed? 
• Can we plan and monitor our spending at the speed of our business? 

SpendBrain answers those questions instantly. It scans contracts, invoices, and vendor data in real time, surfacing violations, rate discrepancies, and optimization opportunities before they become financial liabilities. 

• Ask Contracts Anything using natural language, no legal team required 
• Spot Spend Anomalies Instantly before they show up in your quarterly reports 
• Run Verbal Queries across every vendor, region, and term from one view 
• Get Unified Insights without spreadsheets or system toggling 
• Talk to Real Experts when it’s not just about the data, but about what to do next 

“This isn’t about dashboards. This is about decision speed. SpendBrain is built for velocity to surface the things you didn’t know to ask and make cost intelligence conversational.” 

Building a Spend Ontology is an Enduring Competitive Advantage 

Procurement and finance systems weren’t designed for today’s speed, complexity, or a sprawling global vendor network. That’s why SpendBrain doesn’t try to patch the past. It redefines the future, with a spend ontology that understands how money moves across a business. 

Under Copeland’s leadership, SIB isn’t chasing the AI race. He’s applying what already works, bringing tested, practical AI applications into a domain where the use case is clear: cost reduction. 

“Just like Salesforce redefined CRM and Tesla redefined the electric vehicle, we’re building the first AI-native system for spend.” Copeland adds” “Our vision is to build the world’s intelligence infrastructure on cost so no company overspends another dollar again.” 

This is the end of manual audits, endless reconciliations, and ambiguous vendor relationships. It’s the start of strategic spend visibility at scale.