B2B payments software expert Inez Berkhof-Hollander explores the quiet rise of AI use cases transforming enterprise payments
Would it surprise you to learn that, despite the headlines about whether AI is delivering meaningful real-world returns, 80% of business buyers say they ‘always’ or ‘often’ use AI in their purchasing and payment processes?
The reasons are clear. Incorrect invoices, fragmented ERP integration, inconsistent invoice formats and delays in approval workflows continue to impede the operational effectiveness of finance teams. These findings come from a survey of 500+ CFOs and finance leaders across the UK, France, Germany and Spain, commissioned to understand how businesses are using technology to improve order-to-cash (O2C) performance.
AI finds a secure footing in European B2B
European finance leaders are under growing pressure to fully digitise their back offices, yet many of the fundamental order-to-cash challenges remain unresolved. Invoicing plays a critical role in customer relationships, with more than half of respondents saying it influences repeat purchases. Personalisation is also becoming increasingly important, with invoice customisation rated important by over 80% overall and 93% in Spain. However, operational obstacles persist. Delays in approval workflows and difficulty matching invoices to purchase orders were the two most common invoicing challenges, each cited by 34% of respondents.
The challenges extend beyond invoicing itself. Inconsistent invoice formats and limited ERP integration remain persistent obstacles, each cited as problematic by 31% of respondents. Meanwhile, more than half (57%) of the 500-plus businesses surveyed encountered payment limitations with at least one supplier during the period studied — a figure that rose sharply to 76% among German respondents.
Against this backdrop, AI is finding a secure footing in European B2B and is being seen as a force magnifier for finance, not as a tool to trim employee numbers. In France and Germany, buying specialists are gravitating to the technology to establish quick invoice status visibility, using capabilities such as auto-matching invoices to purchase orders, and improving invoice inaccuracy.
Notably, the evidence suggests around half of respondents report they are already using AI tools often in their purchasing and payment processes, with a further three in 10 using them routinely. For many mainstream B2B organisations, AI is quietly becoming part of the everyday machinery of finance operations.
Demand for AI solutions grows
But what exactly are businesses using AI for? Our research points to three clear priorities: improving decision-making through richer data insights, strengthening fraud prevention and risk management, and reducing the manual processes that continue to slow payment workflows.
The strongest demand is emerging for AI solutions that provide real-time invoice status visibility and automatically match invoices to purchase orders as they directly address long-standing practical finance challenges. By addressing long-standing inefficiencies, these tools are quietly transforming B2B O2C processes. The result is a transformation of the order-to-cash cycle, from automating invoice matching and cash application to predicting payment behaviour and identifying risks earlier.
These capabilities can help prioritise collections, reduce processing times, resolve disputes faster and deliver more personalised customer interactions. But the next stage of AI adoption may be even more transformative.
The emerging opportunity is an AI-enhanced ‘Detect, Act, Grow’ cycle: using data-driven insights to identify changes in customer behaviour earlier to trigger more targeted interventions and ultimately improve commercial outcomes. By turning operational data into actionable intelligence, AI has the potential to move finance teams from responding to issues after they arise to anticipating them before they occur.
By analysing spending patterns and credit behaviour, AI can help businesses uncover emerging opportunities, personalise incentives and strengthen customer relationships with minimal human effort. From reactivating dormant buyers to optimising credit usage, incentives and rebates, AI-enabled order-to-cash platforms could become a powerful tool for automating engagement and driving more intelligent growth.
The commercial potential is beginning to emerge in practice. Early deployments show how AI can move beyond process automation to influence customer behaviour directly, including campaigns that re-engaged dormant customers and increased buyer spend. In one case, a major US retailer used AI-driven targeting to reach customers at risk of disengaging, including prompts highlighting remaining credit. The campaign resulted in multiple dormant customers making purchases within the first week of the campaign. In another instance, a large US manufacturer used AI-generated prompts to reignite buyer spend with similar AI prompts, increasing sales growth by 14%.
As AI adoption grows, organisations can transform payments and O2C from a cost function into a driver of profitability, customer loyalty and growth. By analysing behaviour patterns, AI will soon step up to help build systems that can trigger targeted interventions that strengthen relationships and drive sales.
Beyond the operational benefits of AI, the research also points to a broader shift in buyer expectations. Businesses increasingly expect a smoother experience across payments and invoicing, with greater flexibility and fewer barriers to collaboration. As a result, demand is likely to grow for invoice-based payment processes that help organisations and their wider commercial ecosystems do business more efficiently.
Inez Berkhof-Hollander is EMEA Vice President at the global B2B payments network, TreviPay
For more on the themes discussed here, you can access the complete TreviPay EMEA market research report here
