2026 AP Automation Trends: The Case for Embedded AI

According to the IFOL 2026 Accounts Payable Automation Trends report, 77% of organizations still manually enter invoices, up from 66% a year ago. Although nearly three-quarters plan to automate, only 7% describe their AP function as fully automated. AI adoption is accelerating, with 19% using AI and another 30% planning to adopt within a year. Most common AI applications include invoice data capture (58%), invoice matching and approvals (49%), and duplicate/fraud detection (40%). SAP Concur emphasizes the value of embedded AI, with users processing 54% more invoices per hour than Coupa users.