Basware has announced new agentic AI capabilities for its Invoice Lifecycle Management (ILM) platform, positioning the release as a step towards more autonomous accounts payable (AP). The company said the rollout will introduce new AI “agents” designed to take on routine AP interactions, including invoice disputes, payment queries, and internal processing questions.
“The immediate future of finance involves near-perfect, touchless invoice processing,” said Jason Kurtz, CEO, Basware.
Basware said two additional agents are planned as part of its product roadmap. A Supplier Agent is intended to support invoice disputes and payment queries, including contacting suppliers, explaining disputes, and summarising outcomes and next steps. An AP Pro Agent is designed to help AP clerks resolve processing questions in real time through natural-language queries, aiming to reduce delays and manual effort.
The product update lands as finance teams face mounting pressure to show measurable returns from AI investments. In research commissioned by Basware and conducted by FT Longitude, 61% of 200 finance leaders in the US, UK, France, and Germany said their organisations have rolled out AI agents largely as an experiment, while one in four said they still do not fully understand what an AI agent looks like in practice. In a separate Basware release tied to the same research, the company said nearly half of CFOs reported increased pressure from leadership to implement AI across finance operations.
Basware’s announcement builds on its InvoiceAI programme, which the company has positioned as an AI layer across the invoice lifecycle, from ingestion to reconciliation. InvoiceAI includes two earlier agents: an AP Business Agent, which provides contextual guidance on handling invoices and “next best” actions, and an AP Data Agent, which allows users to query invoice data in natural language to return answers that support operational decisions.
Basware is also emphasising governance and auditability as it expands agent-driven workflows. “Autonomy without trust is just risk,” Kurtz said. The company said AI agent actions are executed through a single governed path within the ILM platform, applying customer business rules, compliance requirements, and risk thresholds before actions are taken, with an audit trail for autonomous decisions.
Customer references formed part of Basware’s announcement, including Billerud, which makes paper and packaging materials. “The efficiency gains we achieved translated directly into tangible cost savings, paving the way for a rapid return on investment within just a few months,” said Jesper Persson, Business Developer at Billerud.
The launch comes amid continued investment across finance teams in AP automation, as organisations seek to cut manual handling, reduce errors, and improve compliance. In a February 2025 release marking its 40th anniversary, Basware cited third-party market estimates that valued the global AP automation market at $3.41bn and projected a 12.8% compound annual growth rate through 2030, while also pointing to the persistence of paper invoices in enterprise environments.
Basware said the new agentic capabilities will be rolled out throughout 2026, with further agents planned to prioritise actions, automate resolutions, and connect data across systems to support faster decision-making at scale.
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