Corporate finance teams are expected to deliver faster insight with fewer resources, yet most back offices still run on manual processes. Data entry, email triage, spreadsheet reconciliation, and repetitive vendor outreach consume the bulk of a team's day.
According to Intuit's 2025 Accountant Tech Survey, finance professionals spend 62% of their time on compliance-oriented tasks like bookkeeping, invoice processing, and auditing. That's time that could be redirected toward strategic analysis, forecasting, and the work that actually moves a business forward.
What are AI Agents in Accounting?
AI agents in accounting are autonomous software systems that can interpret financial data, take action, and continuously learn from outcomes.
Unlike rule-based automation tools, AI agents interpret unstructured data, understand the intent behind an email, validate documents against your ERP, and make confidence-driven decisions about when to act autonomously and when to escalate to a human. They can be deployed across every major function in the office of the CFO. Here's a practical look at how.
Digitizing and Processing Vendor Invoices
Invoice processing remains one of the most labor-intensive tasks in accounts payable. Invoices arrive in every format, PDFs, scanned images, email attachments, and AP teams spend hours keying in data, cross-referencing purchase orders, and resolving discrepancies.
AI agents use advanced OCR, computer vision, and natural language processing to extract invoice data regardless of format, then automatically validate it against configurable rules.
Key capabilities include:
AI Agents for AP Inbox Automation and Vendor Communication
Beyond processing invoices, AP teams field a constant stream of vendor emails, approval status checks, payment timeline questions, short-pay disputes, and missing invoice follow-ups. Every inquiry requires someone to pause, look up information in the ERP, and compose a response.
AI agents monitor shared AP inboxes around the clock, detect the intent behind each message, and respond conversationally with accurate, real-time information pulled from your system of record.
Routine inquiries are handled autonomously, while complex or sensitive issues are escalated to a human with full context. Once the human resolves the issue, the agent picks up ongoing communication.
This keeps vendors informed (even outside business hours), reduces interruptions to your AP team, and creates a complete audit trail of every interaction.
Period-end accruals are a persistent pain point. Finance teams chase down non-billed expenses from department heads, project managers, and external stakeholders, then manually create journal entries and secure the proper approvals. Missed accruals distort financial statements and create compliance risk.
AI agents automate this end-to-end:
The result is a cleaner, faster close with fewer manual touch-points and reduced risk of accrual errors.
Manual dunning leads to inconsistent outreach, generic messaging, and collectors spending more time on administrative tasks than on actual customer conversations.
The data on AI-powered collections is compelling: a 2025 Billtrust/Wakefield Research study of 500 finance decision-makers found that:
99% of companies using AI successfully reduced DSO, with 75% reporting a reduction of 6 days or more.
Organizations that go further with full AR automation routinely achieve up to 30% reductions in DSO within the first six months.
AI agents turn collections into a proactive, intelligent system:
This shifts collections from a back-office chore into a strategic lever for cash performance.
AR inboxes fill with customer questions, invoice copies, payment confirmations, charge clarifications, dispute notifications. Every unanswered inquiry is a potential payment delay or a damaged relationship.
AI agents continuously monitor shared AR inboxes, interpret the intent behind each message, and respond within minutes, around the clock. Whether a customer needs an invoice copy or payment confirmation, the agent pulls real-time data from your ERP and responds conversationally. Your AR team only handles inquiries that require human judgment, disputes, escalations, or complex billing questions.
Faster responses remove friction from the payment process, which translates directly into faster collections and stronger customer relationships.
Automating Cash Application and Remittance Processing
Matching incoming payments to open invoices is one of the most tedious tasks in AR. Remittance advice arrives across emails, vendor portals, EDI files, and bank statements, each in a different format with varying levels of detail.
AI agents automate the full remittance workflow:
This eliminates the cash application bottleneck, speeds up reconciliation cycles, and gives finance teams real-time visibility into their cash position.
AI Agents for FP&A and Financial Analysis
Even when transactional processes run smoothly, finance teams still spend a disproportionate amount of time gathering and preparing data for analysis. Building variance reports, cash flow forecasts, or board presentations often means querying multiple systems and manually assembling the narrative. McKinsey research identifies this as one of the highest-value frontiers for agentic AI, with finance teams now using AI agents to orchestrate time-consuming workflows like the accounting close process and drafting complex financial reports, capabilities that were previously impractical at scale.
The newest class of AI agents for FP&A moves beyond transactional automation into natural language-driven analysis. These agents sit on top of ERP, EPM, and FP&A data, enabling finance teams to:
How to Get Started with AI Agents in Accounting
Deploying AI agents across your accounting workflows doesn't require a rip-and-replace transformation. The most effective approach is incremental:
The finance teams deploying AI agents today aren't just getting more efficient, they're building a compounding advantage. The question isn't whether AI agents will transform accounting workflows. It's whether your team will be leading that transformation or catching up to it.
Ready to see what Auditoria AI agents can do for your finance team? Request a personalized demo → or explore our solution overview to see how Auditoria deploys across AP, AR, cash application, and FP&A.
FAQ: AI Agents in Accounting
What are AI agents in accounting?
AI agents in accounting are autonomous systems that understand financial data, take action on routine tasks, and learn from outcomes over time.
How are AI agents different from traditional automation?
Unlike rigid rule-based automation, AI agents interpret unstructured data, understand intent, and adapt to changing workflows.
Where can AI agents be used in accounting?
AI agents can be used across AP, AR, cash application, collections, accruals, and FP&A within the office of the CFO.
Can AI agents integrate with ERP systems?
Yes, most enterprise AI agents integrate directly with ERPs like Workday, Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft Dynamics.
Do AI agents replace finance professionals?
No, AI agents augment finance teams by handling repetitive work so professionals can focus on higher-value analysis and decision-making.
How long does it take to implement AI agents in finance?
Many teams can deploy initial AI agent use cases in weeks and expand incrementally over time.
What are the biggest benefits of AI agents for accounting teams?
Common benefits include reduced manual work, faster close cycles, lower DSO, and improved response times.
Are AI agents secure and compliant for finance use?
Enterprise AI agents are built with audit trails, access controls, and security standards designed for regulated finance environments.