The Evolution of AI in Accounts Payable: Tools to Team Members

Your next AP Clerk could be digital. Tech companies have spent more than twenty years trying to solve inefficiencies in Accounts Payable. The journey began in the early 2000s with a simple goal of digitizing paper invoices to eliminate overflowing filing cabinets, missing documents, and manual routing. OCR and invoice scanning addressed the physical paper problem but left much of the manual effort untouched for invoice entry and approval routing.

Around 2010, rule-based automation entered the picture, helping AP teams reduce manual data entry and automate approval routing for digitized invoices. Over time, these tools became more sophisticated through machine learning–based invoice capture and robotic process automation (RPA), which further improved accuracy and efficiency.

More recently, many AP automation platforms have introduced AI assistants and agents designed to help users work faster within their systems. While these tools may accelerate tasks inside a specific application, all the manual steps outside of that small window remain.

Wherever you are in your adoption of AI for Accounts Payable, there is room for a new kind of team member that goes beyond tools: the AI Digital Coworker for Accounts Payable. Unlike assistants or agents, an AI Digital Coworker doesn’t just support users, but can perform the work. These digital coworkers require their own workstation because they autonomously navigate the computer just as a human AP clerk would to check email for incoming invoices, entering data into accounting systems, managing exceptions, and more.

Join us for this webinar as Ken Virgin, CEO of Aimyable, walks through the evolution of AI in Accounts Payable and explains what truly distinguishes AI Digital Coworkers from assistants and agents. Attendees will gain a clear understanding of where AP technology has been, where it’s headed next, and how finance teams can begin thinking about AI as a member of the AP team and not just another tool.

Mark Brousseau
President, Brousseau & Associates 

Over the past 30 years, Mark Brousseau has established himself as a thought leader on accounts payable, accounts receivable, payments and document automation.   A popular speaker at industry conferences and on webinars and podcasts, Brousseau advises prominent end-users and solutions and services providers on how to use automation to improve document- and payments-driven business processes.  Brousseau has chaired numerous educational conferences and has served on several industry committees and boards.  He resides in Center City Philadelphia with his wife and three sons.

Ken Virgin
CEO, Aimyable

Ken Virgin is the CEO of Aimyable, where he leads the company’s mission to redefine accounts payable through advanced AI digital coworker technology. With more than 25 years of experience in financial technology, ERP implementation, and finance process automation, Ken has built and scaled companies that transform how organizations manage invoice processing and vendor payments. 

Prior to founding Aimyable, Ken served as Chief Operating Officer at DocuPhase, where he integrated multiple acquired teams into a unified, metrics-driven organization and positioned the company for a successful sale. He was also the Founder & CEO of iPayables, Inc., a 100% SaaS AP automation platform trusted by Fortune 500 companies and global brands including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Kroger, and the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Ken’s leadership has earned recognition from Gartner, Forrester, and IDC for innovation in accounts payable software and measurable ROI for enterprise finance teams.