From automation to advantage: Reinventing accounts payable with agentic AI

For years, accounts payable has been evolving – from manual processes to being one of the first functions to embrace rule-based machine learning automation and generative AI. They are now racing toward an autonomous AP future – one where AI agents learn, adapt, decide, and act to drive goals responsibly and with minimal human involvement.

This paper explores real-life strategies and examples of how agentic AI is improving every stage of the AP process, from intelligently capturing and validating invoices to identifying and resolving exceptions, mitigating fraud risks, and managing supplier queries masterfully.

Managing AP is complex. It is not just about paying invoices on time. Teams must boost supplier experiences, strengthen risk management, claim discounts, and manage cash and working capital strategies. Key trends are driving these expectations.

So, what does agentic AI deliver that AI doesn't? Traditional AI is great at specific, preprogrammed tasks. Think of it as your go-to assistant that follows clear instructions. Need invoice data extracted or mismatched purchase orders flagged? Standard AI's on it.

Agentic AI systems, on the other hand, are designed to operate autonomously, manage complex multistep workflows, and deliver outcomes, not just outputs. For example, while traditional AI can spot exceptions, agentic AI can resolve them automatically. It can prioritize invoices that unlock greater discounts and match data so precisely that it cuts processing times dramatically.

What's more, agentic AI boosts transparency in the AP process. All decisions made by the system are recorded and can be traced back to the underlying data and business rules. This provides a clear audit trail and allows for continuous improvement of processes based on analysis of past decisions.

By putting goal-oriented AI agents to work alongside human experts, finance leaders can build future-ready AP functions. But first, they must identify the right use cases to pursue.

To truly understand the value of agentic AI, let's look at how it's already making waves.

1. Smarter invoice processing

Harnessing agentic AI for accurate, swift invoice intake can have a cascading positive impact across AP. That's why a global food services company that was processing 50,000 out of 8.5 million annual invoices manually deployed Genpact AP Capture, our AI-powered invoice processing solution. The tool helped classify and prioritize invoices, cutting invoice processing time from 9 minutes to 30 seconds, helping capture early payment discounts, and raising auto-posting rates to 60%.

2. Precise, lightning-fast exception handling

When managing millions of invoices annually, agentic AI-led exception management can be a game-changer. An electrical distribution company with a sprawling AP team felt the strain of processing 3.5 million invoices annually. It used Genpact AP Advance – designed to tackle challenges such as three-way matching, exception handling, and non-purchase order (PO) invoice processing – to streamline the process. The result? Faster approvals, swift exception resolution, on-time payments, and more discounts captured.

3. Proactive fraud prevention

Duplicate invoices can cost companies millions, especially when traditional methods fail to catch subtle anomalies. We experienced this firsthand when Genpact's legacy tools and processes failed to catch duplicate invoices. In response, we turned to our own solution – Genpact AP Trace, designed to enable near-zero duplicate or incorrect payments. The tool identified duplicates others missed – even those with minor typographical differences or irregular patterns. The outcome? A 30% reduction in false positives and near-zero incorrect payments.

4. Boosting supplier relationships

Suppliers expect clear, timely communication, and any gaps can lead to friction. A leading shared services provider for the beverage bottling industry used agentic AI to cut query resolution times by 50%. Our agentic AI-powered helpdesk tool, Genpact AP Assist, helped the company automate the process and analyze sentiment and intent to prioritize critical queries. This helped the company slash the average resolution time for AP queries by up to 50%. Most importantly, it improved crucial supplier relationships.

Agentic AI represents the future of accounts payable – but technology alone isn't the full solution. The AP ecosystem is complex, with global processes spanning hundreds of jurisdictions, multiple languages, and intricate systems often reliant on dated ERPs.

What's critical is combining deep process expertise with tailored agentic AI solutions. That's where our portfolio of agentic AI-powered solutions, the Genpact AP Suite, comes in.

The Genpact AP Suite is designed to tackle the complexities of modern AP, offering modular, agentic AI-powered solutions for every stage of the process. From smarter data extraction to proactive fraud detection, our suite is built to scale with your business and deliver measurable impact.

We bring in the last-mile advantage, helping connect your processes with the right tech and the right experts. With more than 20 years of expertise in managing AP and a wide partner ecosystem, we pair deep operational and industry knowledge with cutting-edge AI trained on millions of real-life transactions to deliver predictive analytics, insights, and proactive action.

Here's what makes us different:

• Proven expertise: Over 20 years of AP process mastery paired with cutting-edge AI trained on millions of transactions

• A wide partner network: Collaboration drives progress, which is why we partner with industry-leading businesses

• Enterprise-grade security: Built on Microsoft's Azure AI Foundry and Azure Analytics Service, enabling compliance and protection at scale

• Modular flexibility: Choose only the tools you need. Tailored solutions for tailored results