How AI-Fueled Solutions Drive AP Automation, Efficiency, and Value

The numbers show the expectations and potential for AP automation and AI-fueled solutions to drive efficiency, value, and insight: 74% of all AP departments planned to use artificial intelligence in some way by the end of 2024.¹

It’s a record-high adoption rate spurred by the benefits of AP automation and its ease of deployment, as technology providers embed AI in existing AP automation solutions and enable their implementation and adoption. That’s according to the industry analysts at Ardent Partners, whose annual AP trends and predictions report sponsored by SAP Concur informs what you’ll read here.

The report is designed to help AP and finance leaders prepare for the always-challenging times ahead. Read and learn how:

• AI and AP automation will enhance AP operations through better efficiency, forecasting, cash flow management, and fraud detection.
• Solution providers are investing in AI to meet businesses’ expectations that solutions offer AI capabilities.
• AI brings risks to AP that must be addressed with governance and heightened security.
• Geopolitical conflicts and tariffs could affect global supply chains and AP operations.
• The AP talent landscape is evolving, changing roles and increasing the attraction of AP as a career path.

“A robust AP operation can be a strategic powerhouse capable of driving bottom-line performance and optimizing overall business operations,” observes Andrew Bartolini, Ardent Partners’ founder and chief research officer in the report. “The year ahead will help cement this new perception of AP.”

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How Are AI-Powered Solutions Enhancing AP Operations?

With a talent shortage, the necessity to remain competitive, and the need for greater efficiencies and insights, it is little wonder businesses look to AI-powered solutions for enhancing AP operations and achieving AP automation for strategic spend management. It also affirms what many increasingly recognize: Strategic AP teams can drive profitability.

AI’s capabilities have grown exponentially and quickly, building on machine learning’s more basic abilities to perform labor-intensive tasks. Now, in ePayables and other solutions involving B2B payments, AI and AP automation are:

• Delivering invoice processing automation by handling varying types of invoices, extracting data, and performing matching and validation. Freed from repetitive tasks, AP professionals can focus on the exceptions AI flags.
• Improving fraud detection by spotting anomalies, because AI can take a deeper and broader look more quickly than humans can.
• Providing personalized, in-the-moment guidance and insights to approvers, suppliers, and others, which frees AP teams for other value-adding tasks.
• Empowering forecasting, as AI gathers the data and finance teams have more time for analysis and planning.
• Improving cash flow management, a necessity with the cost of capital amid ongoing geopolitical conflicts.

How AI Helps with Cash Flow Management and the Cost of Capital

AI is expected to help squeeze invoice processing times to record lows, an effective asset for heightening cash flow management abilities as the cost of capital remains high.

The data-driven insights and speed of AI and AP automation can allow businesses to:

• Improve cash management strategies and B2B payment practices and help them negotiate discounts, gain better payment terms, and extend payment cycles. With tighter control, they can preserve cash and mitigate interest costs.
• Contend with the cost of capital, which Ardent analysts don’t expect to go down anytime soon amid U.S. tariffs, geopolitical conflict, and expected rises in inflation affecting supplier prices.

How Are Solutions Providers Investing in AI?

Many business leaders now expect AI to be a standard feature fueling enterprise and ePayables solutions, not an option. Solutions providers are answering and investing, because they’re responsive to customers or simply fear being left behind by AI-touting upstarts.

Businesses want the AI integration to be seamless, secure, user friendly, and capable of driving AP automation, streamlining processes, and powering decision-making. When looking for ePayable and other solutions to meet those needs and handle other aspects of B2B payments, they’re increasingly asking providers to detail:

• AI use cases
• Data quality and security
• Performance metrics
• AI data requirements and model training specifics
• Expertise and experience
• Their AI roadmap

The list illustrates that finance and AP leaders are becoming savvier consumers in the pursuit of AI-powered solutions to support automated invoicing (invoices and AI are a perfect match), fraud detection, forecasting, and other finance functions. For providers, that means AI features are a must in new product releases and updates if they want to stay relevant and competitive.

What Are the Potential Risks of AI in AP?

As with any newer technology, businesses are still learning their way around AI. Best practices, including AI governance, are still developing. At the same time, many businesses are rushing AI into use, driven by a fear of missing out and believing they can fix problems later. That makes it imperative to understand the potential risks of AI in AP.

AI can fight fraud — and enable it, too

There will be fraud. Because there always is, and fraudsters aren’t getting dumber or less sneaky. Like businesses, they’ll use AI tools to their advantage to manipulate data, create fake invoices, and phish for weaknesses and money. Businesses will use their AI-powered solutions to find risky patterns, fraudulent invoices, and other schemes. Fortunately, AI can learn quickly and identify subtleties, such as suspicious spending patterns or unusual payments, that might indicate a thief at work. Vigilance remains your key ally in fraud detection.

Businesses must focus on AI strategy, governance, and controls

Whether your organization is a trailblazer or a “snail-blazer,” it’ll need to establish well-defined approaches to using AI-powered solutions for invoice processing automation, fraud detection, B2B payments, and more. 

AI governance covers much ground but at its core means ensuring data is accurate, secure, monitored, and validated. If that’s done, organizations can ensure forecasts are correct and invoices and payments are safe and auditable. If that’s not done – both by organizations and providers of AI-powered solutions – the risk of AI “malfunctions” rises. The malfunctions will come from mistakes and poor data and controls, Ardent analysts predict, which could result in lost confidence, market plunges, and regulatory and legislative crackdowns.

How Geopolitical Conflicts Could Affect Global Supply Chains, AP

Artificial intelligence, of course, is far from the only issue for AP teams and their businesses. Geopolitical conflicts in Eastern Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia will challenge businesses, supply chains, and AP teams in multiple ways. Tariffs initiated by the U.S. – and ensuing retaliations – could bring price increases and inflation, Ardent predicts.

Here’s how that could play out:

• Global invoicing complexity grows as tariffs must be calculated and recorded on invoices, claims made to drawback duties on goods eventually exported, discrepancies reconciled, and systems adjusted.
• Geopolitical conflicts sever and reroute supply chains, disrupting payments, endangering compliance, and enabling fraud.
• Back-office operations and employees located in Eastern Europe – from Ukraine to the Baltics to possibly Poland – could be endangered by the outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war, raising cybersecurity risks and heightening fraud detection efforts.

Conclusion: Roles Evolves and AP Becomes a Career Launching Pad

Geopolitical conflict and global invoicing complexity. AI-powered solutions and AP automation that strengthen efficiency, forecasting, cash flow management, and fraud detection. AI-driven tools that empower automated invoicing and simplify B2B payments. Together they bring a mass of challenges to AP teams and operations. But they also provide a host of opportunities to an AP role that’s more strategic, less manual, and integral to helping organizations navigate disruption and increase value.

With 80% of routine tasks being handled by AP automation within the next few years, as predicted by Ardent Partners in the SAP Concur-sponsored report, AP teams will likely:

• Evolve to more specialized roles of oversight, exception-handling, compliance, and fraud detection.
• Require AI and automation specialists who manage, refine, and troubleshoot AI-fueled solutions.
• Utilize data analysts to spot trends, improve supplier relationships, and hone strategy.

AI and changing needs mean evolving AP staffing models as well. And that the war for AP and finance talent will heat up as new skills are sought.

“Talented AP professionals who develop a broader understanding of the business and its financial operations, while simultaneously strengthening their general AP and AI-related skills, will find success in other roles,” the report says. “This shift will position AP as a launching pad for sharp professionals seeking to advance their careers beyond traditional AP roles.”