Businesses and their accountants continued to adopt artificial intelligence agents and other digital tools in the quarter ended Dec. 31, according to executives at financial operations platform provider BILL. The platform is used by 498,000 businesses and 9,500 accounting firms, and the number of businesses is up from 481,000 a year earlier. In addition, 8.3 million businesses use BILL’s proprietary B2B payment network. By spanning workflows such as payables, receivables and cash management, the company aims to drive higher engagement and transaction volume across its ecosystem of small and medium-sized business customers and accounting partners.
Demand for working capital tools is rising on the platform. The number of small and medium-sized businesses using BILL’s invoice financing offering increased by nearly 50% year over year during the latest quarter, and the origination volume increased by over 30%. Executives describe invoice financing as a fast-growing, emerging payment solution that provides flexible capital exactly when it is needed, and say it addresses a critical operating need for many small and medium-sized businesses. Customers are also adopting the BILL Cash Account, launched during the quarter, which lets businesses hold operating cash in a high APY account. Early indications since launching in Q2 show that more than 70% of Cash Account users have increased their spend volumes on the BILL network, and leadership views the product as a way to bring billions of dollars of monthly offline spend onto the platform.
Artificial Intelligence agents have become a central part of BILL’s strategy to replace manual workflows. Launched in October, the artificial intelligence agents collect and validate W-9s, reconcile receipts, accelerate user onboarding and perform routine tasks for small and medium-sized businesses. Nearly 10,000 customers have activated the W-9 agent, and that agent has collected 40,000 W-9s. The company expects the agent to collect and automate 3 million W-9s by the end of 2026, and says this will save thousands of weeks of manual work for customers. BILL has also expanded tools for accountants, adding procurement, multi-entity support and advanced reporting in its Accountant Console, and positions these capabilities as increasingly important as artificial intelligence reshapes the accounting profession and enables firms to shift from transactional work to automated advisory services.
