AP Automation Statistics
Last updated: 2026-11-04 · 13 sourced statistics
AP automation means software that captures supplier invoice data, routes invoices for approval and pays suppliers electronically. The most detailed free data comes from Ardent Partners' State of ePayables 2025, a survey of 204 AP professionals. It found automated routing and approval workflow in use at 70% of AP departments, eInvoicing and ePayments at 67% each and automated data capture at 60%, while one-third of the market remained unautomated. Increasing automation was AP leaders' top objective (65%), and nearly half of AP departments were already using AI. Supplier enablement is the next step: 35% of AP teams named getting more suppliers to submit electronic invoices as a top priority. Ardent is a commercial analyst firm, so we set its figures beside independent payment data: the Association for Financial Professionals finds checks fell to 26% of B2B payments in 2025 from 33% in 2022, and the Federal Reserve reports that ACH reached almost three quarters of US noncash payment value in 2024. Every figure below links to the page that states it.
Key takeaways
- 70% of AP departments use automated routing and approval workflow, 67% eInvoicing, 67% ePayments and 60% automated data capture (Ardent Partners, 2025, 204 AP professionals).
- One-third of the AP market remains unautomated (Ardent Partners).
- Independent payment data points the same way: checks fell to 26% of B2B payments in 2025 from 33% in 2022 (AFP, 223 finance professionals), and ACH reached almost three quarters of US noncash payment value in 2024 (Federal Reserve).
- Increasing automation across AP processes is the top objective for 65% of AP leaders (Ardent Partners).
- Nearly half of AP departments use AI today and another third expect to within 12 months (Ardent Partners).
- 35% of AP teams named enabling more suppliers to submit electronic invoices as a top priority, and 46% of AP leaders named deploying comprehensive ePayables solutions (Ardent Partners).
At a glance.
Every figure on this page in one table, each linked to its named source. Scroll down for the full context behind each number.
| Figure | What it measures | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 70% | 70% of AP departments use automated routing and approval workflow solutions, the most widely adopted AP automation category in the survey. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Six: ePayables Adoption Must Increase, November 20, 2025) | 2025 |
| 67% | 67% of AP departments use eInvoicing, which lets suppliers create and submit invoices electronically instead of on paper. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Six) | 2025 |
| 67% | 67% of AP departments use ePayments solutions, which Ardent says have seen a sharp rise in adoption over the past few years. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Six) | 2025 |
| 60% | 60% of AP departments use automated invoice data capture and extraction, traditionally one of the first solutions an AP team deploys. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Six) | 2025 |
| 37% | 37% of AP departments use payment or business networks that connect them with suppliers for invoicing, payment and communication. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Six) | 2025 |
| 1 in 3 | One-third of the AP market remains unautomated, even as adoption figures keep moving up. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Six) | 2025 |
| 46% | Deploying comprehensive ePayables solutions was the top AP priority for 2025, a key initiative for 46% of AP leaders, ahead of improving reporting and analytics (44%). | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Four: Supplier Enablement A Focus of Success, November 6, 2025) | 2025 |
| 35% | 35% of AP teams named enabling more suppliers to submit electronic invoices as a top priority. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Four) | 2025 |
| 65% | Increasing automation across AP processes was AP leaders' top objective by a significant margin (65%), ahead of improving forecasting and predictive capabilities (39%) and reducing departmental budgets (35%). | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Eight: AP Looks to Increase Automation Across Processes, January 22, 2026) | 2025 |
| 42% + 23% | AP leaders expect AI to have a significant (42%) or transformational (23%) impact on AP over the next two or three years. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Eight) | 2025 |
| ~50% | Nearly half of AP departments are using AI today, and another third expect to do so within 12 months. | Ardent Partners, AP's Unfinished Journey: Reflections on the 2025 State of ePayables (Payables Place, December 18, 2025) | 2025 |
| 26% | Checks accounted for 26% of B2B payments in 2025, down from 33% in 2022, in a survey of 223 financial professionals. This independent figure measures payment method, not AP software use. | Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), 2025 AFP Digital Payments Survey | 2025 |
| ~3/4 | US consumers and businesses made 236.6 billion noncash payments in 2024, and ACH's share of noncash payments by value reached almost three quarters for the first time, while check payments kept falling by number and value. | Federal Reserve, press release on the Federal Reserve Payments Study (July 1, 2026) | 2026 |
The statistics
70% of AP departments use automated routing and approval workflow solutions, the most widely adopted AP automation category in the survey.
67% of AP departments use eInvoicing, which lets suppliers create and submit invoices electronically instead of on paper.
Source:Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Six)2025
67% of AP departments use ePayments solutions, which Ardent says have seen a sharp rise in adoption over the past few years.
Source:Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Six)2025
60% of AP departments use automated invoice data capture and extraction, traditionally one of the first solutions an AP team deploys.
Source:Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Six)2025
37% of AP departments use payment or business networks that connect them with suppliers for invoicing, payment and communication.
Source:Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Six)2025
One-third of the AP market remains unautomated, even as adoption figures keep moving up.
Source:Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Six)2025
Deploying comprehensive ePayables solutions was the top AP priority for 2025, a key initiative for 46% of AP leaders, ahead of improving reporting and analytics (44%).
35% of AP teams named enabling more suppliers to submit electronic invoices as a top priority.
Source:Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Four)2025
Increasing automation across AP processes was AP leaders' top objective by a significant margin (65%), ahead of improving forecasting and predictive capabilities (39%) and reducing departmental budgets (35%).
AP leaders expect AI to have a significant (42%) or transformational (23%) impact on AP over the next two or three years.
Source:Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Eight)2025
Nearly half of AP departments are using AI today, and another third expect to do so within 12 months.
Checks accounted for 26% of B2B payments in 2025, down from 33% in 2022, in a survey of 223 financial professionals. This independent figure measures payment method, not AP software use.
Source:Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), 2025 AFP Digital Payments Survey2025
US consumers and businesses made 236.6 billion noncash payments in 2024, and ACH's share of noncash payments by value reached almost three quarters for the first time, while check payments kept falling by number and value.
Source:Federal Reserve, press release on the Federal Reserve Payments Study (July 1, 2026)2026
When these numbers don't apply
Aggregate statistics hide a lot. Read these caveats before quoting a figure as if it describes your specific situation.
- The adoption, priority and AI figures come from one source: Ardent Partners' The State of ePayables 2025: AP's Unfinished Journey, an analyst survey of 204 AP professionals and their organizations. Ardent's free Payables Place articles do not describe the respondents by company size, region or industry, so treat these as indicative of larger AP departments rather than of all businesses.
- No independent source we could open publishes the same adoption measures. The AFP and Federal Reserve figures on this page measure payment methods, not AP software use, so they corroborate the direction of the shift to electronic payments rather than Ardent's exact percentages. AFP's survey is based on 223 financial professionals, a small sample.
- Ardent Partners is a commercial analyst firm, and the State of ePayables report is distributed by AP software vendors, so read adoption and priority figures as market indicators, not neutral population statistics.
- Adoption shares count organizations that use a type of solution at all. They do not say what share of each organization's invoices or payments is automated.
- Paid-report figures that are not stated on the publisher's free pages (for example market-size forecasts and touchless-processing rates) are deliberately left out.
How we compiled this data
Reviewed on 2026-10-28, with independent sources added on 2026-11-04. Each Ardent Partners figure was read on the free Payables Place article that states it (Parts Four, Six and Eight of the State of ePayables 2025 series and Ardent's December 2025 reflections post). The sample of 204 AP professionals is stated in Ardent's May 21, 2025 pre-release post. The previous version's figures were removed because their linked pages did not state them or linked only to homepages: a $10-per-invoice saving, a '79% lower cost, 5x faster' claim, a 'majority' adoption claim credited to Levvel Research, a 'roughly double' market forecast credited to MarketsandMarkets, and a derived $12,000 annual saving. Ardent's cost and cycle-time benchmarks are covered on the accounts payable statistics page. On 2026-10-28 we moved the AFP figure on AI use against payments fraud to the payment fraud statistics page (and the outcomes reported by AI users to the finance AI statistics page), so each figure appears on the page whose scope fits it best. On 2026-11-04 we added two figures from outside Ardent, read that day on the publishers' own pages: the AFP 2025 Digital Payments Survey summary and the Federal Reserve's July 1, 2026 Payments Study press release. We looked for APQC's open benchmark on electronically received invoices, but its pages could not be opened that day, so it is not cited. The Federal Reserve figure also appears on our accounts payable statistics page, which covers the US payment mix in more detail.
We hand-collected each figure from its original publisher rather than recycling secondary round-ups, cross-checked the headline numbers against the source documents on 2026-10-28, and link every statistic to the report it came from so you can verify it yourself. Where a publisher issues annual updates, we cite the report edition and flag the year inline.
Frequently asked questions
How many companies use AP automation?
It depends on the tool. In Ardent Partners' 2025 survey of 204 AP professionals, 70% of AP departments used automated routing and approval workflow, 67% eInvoicing, 67% ePayments and 60% automated data capture, while one-third of the market remained unautomated.
What do AP teams automate first?
Ardent describes automated data capture and extraction (used by 60% of AP departments) as traditionally one of the first solutions an AP team deploys. Approval workflow is now the most widely used category, at 70%.
What are AP leaders' top priorities?
Increasing automation across AP processes was the top objective for 65% of AP leaders. For 2025, deploying comprehensive ePayables solutions was a key initiative for 46%, and improving reporting and analytics for 44% (Ardent Partners).
How many AP departments use AI?
Nearly half of AP departments were using AI in Ardent Partners' 2025 research, and another third expected to within 12 months. 65% of AP leaders expect AI to have a significant (42%) or transformational (23%) impact over the next two or three years.
Is there independent data on AP automation, not just Ardent's?
Not on the same measures. Independent sources track payment methods rather than AP software. The Association for Financial Professionals found checks fell to 26% of B2B payments in 2025, from 33% in 2022, and the Federal Reserve reports that ACH reached almost three quarters of US noncash payment value in 2024. Both point the same way as Ardent's ePayments adoption figure.
Do AP teams try to get suppliers onto electronic invoicing?
Yes. 67% of AP departments already use eInvoicing, and 35% of AP teams named enabling more suppliers to submit electronic invoices as a top priority in Ardent Partners' 2025 research. Payment and business networks that connect AP teams with suppliers were in use at 37%.
Put these figures to use
- Accounting hub: Where invoicing ends and bookkeeping begins: cash vs accrual and record-keeping periods.
- Accounts payable automation guide: How AP automation works from bill capture to payment, with a worked cost-per-bill example and fraud controls.
- AP automation software buyer's guide: Pricing models, a three-year cost comparison and demo questions for choosing an AP tool.
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