Twenty-one percent of surveyed small and mid-size businesses wanted AI from their financial institution to pay bills or invoices.

Billtrust verifies BILL’s AI agent before admitting it to a supplier portal.

Small businesses showed more interest in using artificial intelligence to keep track of their bills than in using it to pay them. In a PYMNTS Intelligence and Velera survey of 2,474 small and mid-size businesses, 31% wanted AI from their financial institution to track expenses and bills, while 21% wanted it to pay bills or invoices. Among consumers surveyed for the same report, 22% wanted AI to track bills or subscriptions, and 19% wanted it to pay them.

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The survey asked about tools from financial institutions. The supplier payment pilot that BILL, Visa and Billtrust launched in October covers a specific task. A buyer decides what to pay, and BILL’s agent carries out that instruction on the supplier’s website. The agent’s authority comes from the buyer’s approval for that invoice.

BILL Founder and CEO René Lacerte described the job on the company’s Nov. 5 earnings call. Even after a buyer approves an invoice and schedules the payment, an employee may still have to sign in to the supplier’s portal and enter a card number.

Billtrust uses Visa’s protocol to verify the agent before giving it access. The agent uses tokenized card credentials, and the supplier’s payment acceptance rules still apply.

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