Artificial intelligence agents are processing purchase orders and preparing collections work as businesses automate more of the steps between a B2B sale and payment.

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PYMNTS Intelligence research with JPMorgan finds surveyed companies automate an average 73% of accounts receivable processes, compared with 55% in the previous year’s survey. Recent deployments extend into work that requires reading customer documents, checking records and deciding which unpaid accounts need attention.

Unilever’s NOVA system handles initial order processing in about 90 seconds across 11 pilot markets, down from 15 to 20 minutes, PYMNTS reported. The company reports that 95% of orders in those markets pass through without manual handling.

Order to cash starts with receiving a customer order and covers fulfillment, invoicing, collections and cash application, which matches incoming payments to outstanding invoices. In B2B transactions, purchase orders, delivery records, contractual terms and invoice disputes all form part of the work surrounding payment.

Much of the order-entry work is already digital. Unilever processes roughly 20 million orders annually, most of which pass directly between computer systems. About 2 million arrive through emails, PDFs, spreadsheets and photographs of paper forms, according to a Microsoft case study. Its customers include supermarket chains, wholesalers and distributors.

NOVA addresses those varied formats. Four agents read incoming messages, interpret their context and extract order information. A fifth checks the results. Missing information and exceptions go to employees for review.

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