[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 a 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 #9 – Geopolitical Conflict Makes It Tougher … For Everyone, Not Just AP
For the first two decades of this millennium, the risks associated with moving supply offshore — such as increased lead times and holding costs, reduced quality control, and poorer supplier communication and visibility — were mitigated by the dramatic cost savings achievable by simply “lifting and shifting” production to low-cost locations. The businesses (most) that ignored the risks inherent in a global supply chain were left unprepared for major disruptions and paid the price during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, many global supply chains are being impacted by military conflict, including those in the Middle East and Eastern Europe (Russia/Ukraine). Meanwhile, the U.S. and China are battling, albeit in a non-military fashion. From an AP perspective, the trend towards more conflict and tension around the world presents several potentially sizable challenges, including payment disruptions, increased compliance risks, currency fluctuation risks, and greater fraud risk.
Prediction #9 – Robust AI Governance Secures Sensitive Data and Establishes Stakeholder Trust
The “Wild West” approach to AI and the inherent “black box” nature of how artificial intelligence functions means placing smart, sensible, and in some cases, very tight controls around its usage. With this understanding, finance and IT leaders can introduce clearly defined approaches to AI usage across the entire business. Within AP, there will be many areas in need of these rules.
One example of AI governance in AP involves fraud detection. AI-powered systems analyze transaction data to identify anomalies indicative of fraudulent activity, such as unusual spending patterns or suspicious payments. Robust governance for this application necessitates laying out clear guidelines for data privacy, establishing protocols for handling and investigating fraud alerts, and ensuring human oversight to avoid false positives. Due to challenges of AI models “keeping up” with fraudsters (see Prediction #12 below), regular model reviews will be needed to maintain their accuracy and effectiveness.
Predictive analytics for cash flow forecasting is another area where AI governance will be essential. AI models can analyze historical orders, invoices, and payment data as well as market trends and interest rates to predict future cash flow, enabling smarter B2B payment decisions. Effective governance in this context requires ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the data used to train the AI model.
Furthermore, it is important to maintain transparency into and reasoning behind the model’s predictions. Regular monitoring and validation are necessary to ensure the continued accuracy of the forecasts and to adjust the model as needed based on actual results and changes to cash management priorities.
Finally, automated invoice processing, powered by AI, automates the extraction of data from invoices, necessitating robust governance. Securing sensitive invoice data throughout the receipt and processing processes as well as banking data during the payment process is essential. Also paramount is implementing quality control measures to verify the accuracy of the data extracted by the AI system. Establishing stakeholder trust in the new technology means providing assurance that existing audit trails that track all processing and payment activity are maintained.
AP 2025 BIG Trends & Predictions (Part 10): Next week we’ll explore a new trend and prediction — Another Rollercoaster Year Ahead
and Series of AI “Malfunctions” Will Create a Wave of Panic and Calls for Regulation, respectively.
