Careem increases efficiency and cuts invoice process time 70% with Oracle AI
March 13, 2025 | 5 minute read
“Through Oracle and their AI-powered process automation, Careem has reduced operational overhead and enabled seamless scaling—allowing us to focus on delivering exceptional value to customers.”
Authored by Harris Qureshi, Application Integration Specialist at Oracle, and Niall Commiskey, Sr Director Product Management at Oracle.
The authors would like to thank Muhammad Asif Ranta, Associate Director ERP Digital Transformation at Careem, for his contributions.
Figure 1: Careem Groceries is the Q-commerce service within the Careem Everything App.
Delivery apps such as Careem are a key part of how consumers and businesses operate globally. Since 2012, Careem has simplified the lives of over 50 million customers. Careem was founded with a mission to simplify transportation and create earning opportunities as a ride-hailing marketplace. It has since expanded to serve its customers in many more ways, including food and grocery delivery, payments, and more. Today the Careem Everything App is a pioneering multi-service platform that provides over a dozen digital services to customers across the wider Middle East.
In 2019, Careem was acquired by Uber. With a subsequent $400 million investment in the Careem Super App by global technology investor e&, the company is building category-leading digital services and scaling the Everything App across their key markets. Careem Groceries, the Q-commerce service within the app, completes deliveries of everyday groceries and household goods such as electronics in minutes, thanks to a network of strategically located “dark stores” (microwarehouses) that enable precise and efficient order and delivery to meet rising customer demands. Their goal was to simplify back-office payment processing to efficiently scale operations while providing exceptional value to customers.
Goals for invoice automation
Careem wanted to enhance aspects of its back-end operations—such as manual invoice management—to enable greater scalability and accuracy. The process involved delivery center staff uploading invoices to Google Drive, and offshore teams extracting data, matching invoices to Goods Receipt Notes (GRN), and entering data in their operational systems. But this manual process was time consuming. Three minutes per invoice meant ~475 hours of manual work monthly. Additionally, manual entry led to mismatches, compliance gaps, and inefficiencies. To scale efficiently, Careem sought automation to enhance accuracy and streamline operations.
Suite of Oracle products used
Careem used the following Oracle products to create an AI-powered automation solution to help them reach their goals:
- Oracle Integration, which provides prebuilt connectivity to SaaS and on-premises applications, run-ready process automation templates, and a low-code visual builder for web and mobile application development.
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Document Understanding, an AI service for performing deep-learning–based document analysis at scale. With prebuilt models that are ready to use, developers can build intelligent document processing into their applications without needing machine learning (ML) expertise.
- Oracle Autonomous Transaction Processing, a fully automated database service optimized to run transactional, analytical, and batch workloads concurrently.
- Oracle APEX, the world's most popular enterprise low-code application platform.
Customer’s solution on OCI
The solution that Careem put in place using Oracle products introduced an intelligent invoice processing system that integrates AI-powered document understanding with Careem Groceries’ existing platforms, ensuring seamless automation and real-time data accuracy.
Solution steps for invoice automation
Careem extended and connected their Oracle Fusion Cloud Financials to automate their invoice processing using the following steps.
- Invoice upload: Dark-store employees upload invoices to Google Drive as usual.
- Automation trigger: Oracle Integration detects new invoices and initiates processing.
- AI-powered data extraction: OCI Document Understanding extracts key invoice details, including supplier name, purchase order number, invoice amount, tax details.
- Storing extracted data: Oracle Integration stores structured invoice data in Oracle Autonomous Database (ATP) for secure and efficient processing and retrieval.
- Automated GRN matching: Oracle Integration fetches Goods Receipt Note (GRN) data from Oracle Fusion Applications and matches it with the invoice details.
- Oracle APEX Dashboard for review: Users review extracted data in a centralized dashboard. A simple Create Invoice button enables seamless approval and entry into the Fusion ERP system through Oracle Integration.
The following diagram illustrates the architecture for Careem’s automation deployment.
Figure 2: The architecture for Careem’s deployment.
Results
The adoption of an AI-powered invoice automation solution has transformed Careem Groceries’ operations, cutting invoice processing time by 70%—from 3 minutes to under 1 minute—and freeing over 332 hours monthly. By eliminating manual data entry and automating GRN matching, the solution has significantly reduced errors while enhancing accuracy and compliance.
"As part of our AI transformation journey, Oracle has been a key enabler in driving automation and efficiency at Careem. With Oracle’s AI-powered process automation, we have unlocked new opportunities to innovate. Most importantly, it has empowered our colleagues to focus on what they do best—simplifying the lives of our customers," says Qasim Ahmed, Director of Cyber Security Operations & IT Engineering at Careem.
With the ability to handle more than 10,000 invoices per month and scale 37% more volume without additional staff, Careem has unlocked new levels of efficiency.
This shift underscores the power of AI and cloud automation to help turn operational bottlenecks into growth enablers. By streamlining workflows and ensuring seamless scalability, Oracle’s solution strengthens Careem’s position in Dubai’s Q-commerce market.
Next steps
As the Everything App continues to evolve, automation will remain central to optimizing operations and enhancing customer experiences across the region. Based on the success of this initiative, Careem plans to continue orchestrating additional AI services and explore the use of Oracle Integration Robotic Process Automation.
For more information about Careem and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, see the following resources: