Inside OnRamp 2025: 4 top takeaways from Ramp’s inaugural customer summit

Customer productivity on Ramp has tripled since 2023, helping companies save more than $10 billion and 27.5 million hours. But Ramp is aiming to 10x those productivity gains in the next two years, co-founder and CEO Eric Glyman and Chief Product Officer Geoff Charles said during the opening of OnRamp New York 2025.

The head-turning goal: 30x productivity on Ramp by 2027. Fueling this spike will be AI copilots and autonomous agents that will replace rule-based automation, which Glyman said is starting to peak.

“I believe that when we have software that can actually think like your team, we’re going to have processes that used to be very tedious and spread out over a long number of days collapse and be completed in very short timeframes,” Glyman said. “The results: faster decisions, fewer bottlenecks, and shorter cycles so you can pursue your mission.”

Charles explained that many financial processes come down to five steps: trigger, instructions, context, tool, and action. Until recently, software focused on being the tool. With AI, it can now handle the whole process end to end.

That breakthrough will let finance leaders hand off time-consuming operational grunt work — like figuring out how to pay an invoice — to Ramp. In turn, they can focus on the analytical and strategic decisions, like process improvements or budget allocation, that CEOs and boards are looking to finance to lead.

“Instead of us working in those tools, those tools can work for us,” Charles said.

Ramp’s vision is to shift CFOs’ time away from lower-value tasks toward deeper business analysis and strategic partnership that further companywide goals.

“Our commitment is simple: to help you overcome the operational pressure, continue evolving your role in your company, and harness this incredible technology revolution to lead your company into the future with confidence,” Charles said.

This recasting of what great finance leaders are capable of, how they can flex their unique skillset, and what their priorities will be in the years ahead was a theme throughout Ramp’s first-ever customer conference.

3 traits that separate the best CFOs

Think bigger than ‘finance leader’: CFOs should not box themselves in as “finance leaders.” Instead, they should think of themselves as leaders of the business at large, Sequoia Capital Partner Ravi Gupta said. While they have specific expertise in finance, they should make decisions based on what will help the business win, even if those decisions aren’t directly related to finance. Panelists noted that CFOs are uniquely positioned to support business objectives because they have an especially detailed and comprehensive view of cost and revenue drivers.

Don’t obsess over a few KPIs: While finance heads are naturally rooted in numbers, they shouldn’t base every decision on how it will affect a handful of metrics. That means keeping an open mind about projects that lack easily measurable results. As proof, Ramp CFO Will Petrie explained how his initial pushback on Ramp’s first Super Bowl ad was overruled, and the decision to make it ultimately proved to be an undisputed success.

Flex based on business needs: CFOs must be adaptable enough to shift based on what the business needs in that moment, something they’re well-suited for given their deep understanding of what’s moving the needle. For instance, if the company is in a period of rapid growth, how can CFOs build the infrastructure to quickly scale up everything from financial controls to real estate? Or if the business is building AI tools, what can finance do to lower rates with LLM and cloud service providers? Great CFOs should constantly evaluate internal and external factors so they can deploy capital where it’s most needed today given key business priorities.

How fraud happens quietly

Former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow, who was at the center of one of the largest corporate accounting fraud scandals, warned of the danger of operating in the “gray area” in his OnRamp keynote. He pointed out that finding loopholes in the rulebook may mean that something is technically allowed, but it’s not without risk. He then held up two items: a CFO of the Year award from CFO Magazine and his federal prison ID, both of which he received in the same year.

His advice for business leaders:

• Even if something is allowed by the letter of the law, consider whether a reasonable person under normal circumstances would consider it acceptable.
• Present concerns as risks to the business (lawsuits, opportunities for misinterpretation) rather than ethical issues.
• Assess whether an approach the company is considering is materially misleading.

Let employees experiment with AI — and know its limits

Across panels, finance leaders agreed that the best way to push widespread adoption of new technologies like AI is to let employees explore the tools themselves and see what they create. It’s also critical to establish a culture where employees share these wins with the rest of the organization.

However, panelists included an important caveat: AI is only useful when the underlying data is clean. That means prioritizing consistent transaction coding and keeping data in one unified system.

At the same time, leaders at even the most tech-forward companies cautioned that technology is an enabler, not a comprehensive solution. AI can help employees reclaim time for deeper analysis and critical thinking, but human creativity and connection remain central to finance’s future. That could be providing hands-on support to guide a customer through a meaningful purchase or developing original email outreach and offers to prospects that will stand out from the deluge of messages in their inbox.

Customers push Ramp to get better

Ramp Chief Business Officer Colin Kennedy closed by encouraging customers to push Ramp for more. For new, more intelligent, and more comprehensive features that will eliminate operational work to make that 30x productivity increase on Ramp a reality.

“We are here focused on one thing, and that is helping you all run your businesses more effectively,” he said. “Give us feedback, give us input, and we promise to do just that.”