91% of AP Teams Are Using AI. 76% Aren't Sure What It Should Be Doing.

Those two numbers come from the same survey of 500+ finance and AP leaders, and they're not a contradiction. They're the actual state of AI adoption in accounts payable right now.

In a recent conversation, Jesse Henry and Daniel Shore of Direct Commerce dig into why access to AI has outpaced clarity about what it should deliver, and why that gap matters more than most teams realize.

Everyone has AI. Not everyone agrees on what it's for.

AI tools have never been easier to get access to, whether that's in day-to-day life or inside a finance function. That's part of why 91% of organizations say they're already using AI in AP. But ease of access isn't the same as clarity of purpose. Three out of four respondents said they're unsure what AI should actually be doing in their AP process, and 1 in 3 can't clearly explain the difference between an AI-powered solution and an AI-native one.

That distinction isn't semantics. It's architecture, and it decides what AI is actually capable of doing for a team.

AI-powered bolts on. AI-native is built in.

An AI-powered tool adds intelligence on top of a workflow that wasn't designed for it. An AI-native platform is built around the full, end-to-end data both buyers and suppliers generate, from the moment an invoice is issued through resolution and payment.

That distinction is also why supplier experience keeps coming up as the missing piece. Four decades of AP automation optimized for the buyer and the AP team, and left the party where the process actually starts, the supplier, out of the picture. AI can't deliver on its promise in AP without that side of the data.

Where this goes next

Jesse and Daniel walk through the three ways Direct Commerce puts AI to work, from smarter legacy workflows to AI-native features like agentic dispute resolution and conversational workflow building, plus a live audience Q&A on where AI fits with policies like no-PO-no-pay.

Watch the full conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haYqZ2EpB5U

Direct Commerce is the industry's first Supplier First™ AP automation platform, built on one shared view for buyers and suppliers alike.