Survey Reveals 80% of Finance Executives Rate AR Automation a Strategic Priority to Improve Cash Flow and Reduce Revenue Leakage

BillingPlatform’s ‘State of AR Automation Survey’ finds only 3% of companies have fully automated AR and while 67% are evaluating AI’s use in AR, only 14% have deployed the technology

BillingPlatform, the enterprise revenue lifecycle management platform for today’s innovative business models, announced the results of its 2025 State of Accounts Receivable (AR) Automation Survey. Among the top findings, 80% of respondents rate AR automation as important, high priority or critical; however, only 3% have fully automated AR with budget constraints and IT backlog cited as the largest barriers to adoption. In addition, 67% are evaluating AI’s use in AR, though only 14% have deployed it.

Conducted in June 2025, the survey provides a comprehensive look at how finance organizations are rethinking AR to improve cash flow, curb revenue leakage, reduce manual effort and embrace intelligent automation. The survey polled more than 100 finance decision-makers at companies across nine industries—including manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, networking and IT, and others—revealing a strong push toward modernizing AR operations.

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Additional key findings from the survey include:

• AR automation adoption gains momentum. While adoption is on the rise—49% are considering solutions and 39% are implementing them—most organizations remain early in their journey.
• Cash flow and Day Sales Outstanding (DSO) remain top concerns. 78% cited poor cash flow or high DSO as the most significant consequence of inefficient AR operations, with most companies reporting average DSOs between 30 and 60 days. 51% say improved DSO is the top benefit of using a customer payment portal.
• Main ways AI is used. The most common AI use cases under evaluation include collections prioritization (60%), dunning optimization (59%) and anomaly detection in invoice errors (57%). The biggest challenges in reporting and analytics remain manual processes (67%), lack of predictive insights (48%) and fragmented data (40%).
• Manual effort is still a major operational obstacle throughout the AR lifecycle. Respondents cited manual workflows as the top challenge in invoicing (63%), collections (57%), payments (60%) and reporting (67%), highlighting the continued need for automation to drive efficiency and reduce reliance on resource-intensive processes.
• Payment processing remains under-automated, even among companies using well-known providers. Despite broad adoption, only 23% of organizations reported mostly or fully automated payment processing. The leading reasons for switching providers were lower transaction costs (68%) and better integration with ERP or billing systems (52%). Support for digital wallets remains limited, with just 17% currently offering that option.

“Our research underscores both the urgency and the opportunity for enterprises regarding AR automation – that it is no longer optional, it’s essential,” said Dennis Wall, BillingPlatform CEO. “While automation technology adoption is slowly increasing, many finance teams are still navigating several pain points such as manual processes that are significantly slowing down the AR lifecycle, further emphasizing the critical need for integrated, intelligent solutions that can improve operational efficiency, optimize cash flow and support long-term financial performance.”