[Editor’s Note: Ardent Partners recently published its Accounts Payable-themed report, “Accounts Payable 2025: BIG Trends and Predictions”. Over the next several weeks, this site will feature our series highlighting the key BIG Trends and Predictions from the report.
As we step into 2025, the world of Accounts Payable (AP) is poised for a transformative year, driven by the accelerating forces of artificial intelligence (“AI”), advanced automation, and the growing recognition of AP’s potential to deliver measurable operational and financial impact.
Since the pandemic began, AP has emerged as a strategic cornerstone for businesses looking to streamline operations, enhance cash flow management, and bolster profitability. AI-powered solutions are helping to redefine the function; the need for smarter cash management and stronger supplier relationships are also aiding the cause.
In this new age, smart executives have identified AP as an area of investment and a lever for driving strategic value. This attention has empowered many AP teams to move beyond transactional tasks, embracing roles that directly influence financial performance and operational excellence.
This Week’s BIG Trend and Prediction
BIG Trend – Historic AI Adoption Rates
Ardent Partners’ AP research indicated that 74% of all AP departments expected to be using AI in some capacity by the end of 2024. This is a historic rate for any type of enterprise technology. It is striking because AP departments are not early or fast technology adopters. If anything, AP departments have lagged other enterprise functions, even within finance. But AI is different. Its rapid adoption has been achieved without new deployments or dedicated AI initiatives and massive resource investments. This is due to the accessibility of AI capabilities within current ePayables solutions relied upon by AP teams.
The upgrade cycle of ePayables solutions in 2024 delivered a wave of new and immediately available AI features. This organic adoption demonstrates the potential for AI to significantly impact AP operations. Additionally, the inherent suitability of AP processes (e.g., high volume of repetitive tasks and access to structured data) for AI automation allows teams broader use of AI than most other groups. Most notably because many AP teams have unknowingly used and benefited from AI-powered features — such as machine learning algorithms for invoice data extraction and matching within ePayables solutions. The opportunity now is for AP teams to take a more proactive and strategic approach to AI by developing technology proficiency and expertise.
BIG Prediction – AI’s Impact on AP Efficiency in 2025: Real and Spectacular
2025 will be a year of significant transformation for accounts payable teams, driven largely by the rapid advancement and adoption of AI. As AI capabilities continue to expand within core ePayables solutions, AP teams will have the opportunity to drive substantial efficiency gains across the full ePayables Framework.
On the front end, AI-powered tools will streamline invoice receipt and processing, significantly reducing manual effort and driving the industry average invoice processing time to a record low level. This increased efficiency will push front-end AP staffers into more strategic roles, focusing more on processing and approval management and invoice exception management. Simultaneously, AI-driven invoice matching and validation will lead to a continued decline in invoice exception rates, further enhancing the overall efficiency and accuracy of AP processes and improving supplier satisfaction rates.
While AI will push many aspects of AP to higher levels of efficiency, some challenges will remain. Approval bottlenecks will persist as organizations grapple with the complexities of implementing efficient and secure AI-powered approval workflows. While AI will untie some big workflow knots, systems will need time to learn the unique flows and requirements embedded within each company. Additionally, supplier onboarding processes, often involving manual data entry and verification, will lag other areas within AP as leaders gain system trust to fully drive this area.
While the impact will be felt in 2025, the evidence will manifest over the next few years with a big increase in the number of AP teams fully automating their sub-processes. AP has the opportunity to be at the forefront of the digital enterprise.
AP 2025 BIG Trends & Predictions (Part 2): Next week we’ll explore a new trend and prediction — Intense Focus on Technology, Driven by AI Expectations and AI FOMO Accelerates Digital AP Transformation, respectively.
