A New AI Series on Payables Place
The power of artificial intelligence (AI) is undeniable. Its impact and influence are revolutionizing the Accounts Payable (AP) and Business-to-Business (B2B) payments automation market. According to research from Ardent Partners, AI will soon be ubiquitous in this sector, offering unparalleled efficiencies and capabilities. The transformative possibilities of AI will drive innovations in invoice processing, payment automation, fraud detection, and overall financial management, streamlining enterprise operations and improving business decision-making.
In view of these advancements, Ardent Partners is launching a special “AI in Action” interview series. Our “AI in Action” series represents an opportunity for our Chief Research Officer, Andrew Bartolini to sit down with senior executives at the ePayables solution providers that are focused on AI now and in the near-term and use these discussions as an opportunity to share their company’s focus on, expertise in, and vision for AI within the AP industry.
Today’s AI in Action profile features a conversation with Daniel Ball, Chief Product Officer at Medius.
AB: Good afternoon Daniel, tell our readers a little bit about yourself.
I’m Daniel Ball, Chief Product Officer at Medius. I’ve been involved in the source-to-pay and AP automation market since 2001. I co-founded Wax Digital, a SaaS source-to-pay solution provider that grew to serve over 260,000 users globally before it was acquired by Medius in 2019. Today, I lead global product strategy for Medius, whilst charting the direction for research and development as we continue to transform the source-to-pay process to become truly touchless and autonomous.
AB: So with all of your experience in the industry, where are the biggest opportunities for AI to improve AP and B2B payment efficiencies and productivity?
DB: AI can have a truly transformational impact on accounts payable (AP) and B2B payment processes, taking on tasks that traditionally ate up a significant portion of finance teams’ time but were very hard to solve using more “traditional” technologies. For instance, it takes just two invoices for Medius SmartFlow to learn how to automatically code and distribute subsequent documents. And Medius Copilot streamlines invoice approvals by providing users in the field with intelligent, contextual support. So, instead of spending hours responding to invoice queries, finance professionals can now focus on higher-value, strategic activities. Similarly, Medius Supplier Conversations handles common supplier email inquiries through AI, drastically reducing email traffic and improving supplier satisfaction. These innovations reduce bottlenecks and help teams close their books faster, leading to more predictable and efficient workflows.
AB: How do you view your customers’ (and prospective customers’) AI attitudes?
DB: Our customers, particularly in the finance space, have largely embraced AI as a lifeline rather than a threat. Contrary to the fear of job displacement, 94% of finance professionals from our Medius Financial Professional Census report being satisfied with AI and automation adoption. They understand that these tools are here to support them, allowing finance professionals to focus on strategic work rather than repetitive, manual tasks that contribute to stress and burnout. This adoption has become a critical factor in talent retention, with automation serving as a key to making finance a more sustainable and attractive career.
AB: What are the leading AI subsets (e.g., machine learning, natural language processing, deep learning, etc.) with the biggest impact on accounts payable/B2B payment solutions? And why?
DB: In AP automation, we’re seeing a major impact from machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP). Machine learning helps us continuously improve the accuracy of data capture, particularly in invoice processing, which is typically prone to human error. NLP powers tools like Medius Supplier Conversations, enabling the system to understand and respond to email inquiries in a natural, conversational manner. This reduces the time finance teams spend responding to routine supplier queries. Additionally, these technologies allow our systems to learn from past data, improving predictions and streamlining future workflows.
AB: How are you ensuring the accuracy and reliability of customers’ AI models (AI data output)?
DB: Accuracy is paramount when it comes to AI in finance. At Medius, we leverage our vast dataset — $200 billion worth of transactions annually — to train our AI models. This volume ensures that our AI tools, such as Medius Copilot and Supplier Conversations, provide highly reliable and accurate data outputs. We also integrate layers of human oversight, particularly in exception management, where AI alerts users to anomalies that require attention, ensuring that the final decision-making remains informed by accurate data. Our models are continuously updated and refined, ensuring they adapt to new information and remain aligned with the evolving needs of our customers.
AB: How do you plan to support your AP clients if/when an AI skills gap exists?
DB: While AI adoption is growing rapidly, we recognize that not all AP teams are fully equipped with the necessary AI skills. To bridge this gap, we focus on delivering intuitive, user-friendly solutions. Medius Copilot, for example, is embedded directly within the AP automation application, providing a familiar interface that helps users interact with AI seamlessly without needing technical knowledge. In fact, we utilize Copilot as an “onboarding buddy” to help bring new users onto the Medius system and thereby embed AI into their experience right from the outset.
AB: Where do you see AI going within the ePayables (AP automation) market over the next five years?
DB: In the next five years, I expect AI to further drive the shift toward fully touchless invoice processing. We’re already seeing this with solutions like Medius Copilot, which minimizes manual interventions in approvals, and I believe this will expand across other areas of AP. Additionally, AI will become more predictive, enabling finance teams to anticipate issues like cash flow gaps or supplier payment risks. As AI models become even more sophisticated, we’ll likely see deeper integration of AI across entire financial ecosystems, enhancing collaboration between AP, procurement, and treasury functions while maintaining robust security and data-sharing protocols.
Ultimately, the building blocks we are putting in place today stack up to deliver our future vision, which we see as an inversion of the prevailing SaaS model, turning from software as a service to service as software, where Medius is capable of, and is trusted to, completely take care of everyday processing and only reaches out when finding anomalies that require human resolution. At that point, the software becomes a hired AP manager rather than a product that is used by an AP manager.
AB: I appreciate your time today!
DB: Thank you.
