Invoices Meet Their Match with Artificial Intelligence

It’s no secret that invoices and accounts payable consume time and money, weighed down by labour-intensive and error-prone processes, including paper, spreadsheets, and emails. No one, especially AP team members, finds the paper chases and manual keying gratifying. It’s a system leading to delays, mistakes, and missed opportunities for companies. Finance and accounts payable leaders are looking for AI and other technology to:

Seeking Efficiency and Confidence

Nearly two-thirds of global finance leaders – 64% – report they’re under pressure to control costs and get the most from their resources.¹ AP is a good place for them to focus efficiency efforts, as controllers rank it the most time-consuming, labour-intensive, and paper-intensive finance function.² Finance and AP leaders expect AI and other technology to be impactful tools for forecasting, automating tedious tasks, raising efficiency, and improving risk management effectiveness. Although automation and AI will alter processes and roles, leaders and experts see the technology complementing AP teams instead of replacing them. Human intervention is still required to apply expertise, experience, and judgment.

Addressing the People Problem

In the U.S., the number of U.S. students studying accounting in college has steadily dropped since 2016, and the number of CPA test takers has been declining since 2007. In the U.K., overall student membership in accounting organizations has fallen,18, and the labour force shrunk after Brexit.

No matter the location, some common challenges come into play for AP and finance. The talent shortage is one of the key challenges in finance departments. Organizations around the world are engaged in multiple efforts to address this issue and attract young people to the profession.

In our latest whitepaper, Invoices Meet Their Match with AI, we discussed the challenges of accounts payable today, AI’s involvement in invoice processing and its impacts on accounts payable teams, and the great benefits of combining human expertise and technology.

Download the paper to learn more about how to use AI to gain insights, improve efficiency, and close the talent gap in accounts payable.