PYMNTS Intelligence found that 70% of CFOs use AI to manage cash flow, while enterprises have automated 55% of accounts receivable on average.

Trade finance presents AI with a challenge because transaction-specific conditions and inconsistent documents complicate automated checking of information.

Faster processing carries economic value, as 43% of small businesses in the United States with international suppliers put faster settlement first, while separate research found that 57% of small business receivers would pay a fixed fee for instant ad hoc payments.

Artificial intelligence is being harnessed to tackle the document review that determines whether a transaction moves forward, one of the most manual parts of trade finance.

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Software has long been able to scan documents and extract data. But a spate of initiatives show how AI is being tasked with interpreting transaction-specific terms, comparing information across documents, conducting checks and deciding which cases need a person’s further attention. The work takes place before many trade payments are cleared to proceed, putting AI inside the process that determines when money gets released.

HSBC’s Smart Checking illustrates the trend. The bank processes more than 1 million documentary presentations annually, including documentary credits and collections. Individual presentations can contain hundreds of pages of structured and unstructured information, while the conditions governing the documents vary by transaction.

Smart Checking extracts and classifies information and applies AI models to turn inconsistent documentation into structured data.

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