The AP automation software market is projected to reach USD 7.95 billion by 2026, continuing its steady growth over the past few years.
As businesses increasingly look to modernize financial operations, AP automation is playing a critical role in reducing manual work and enabling AP teams to shift from a back-office function to a strategic contributor to overall business performance.
In this article, we highlight the top trends shaping accounts payable and AP automation in the year ahead, and how JD Edwards users can prepare for them.
1) AP as the controller of a company’s financial stability
In 2026, the AP department will play a significantly larger role in ensuring a company’s financial stability. AP teams will increasingly be responsible for cash predictability, payment timing, and fraud prevention. AP is no longer just a back-office function; it’s becoming a control tower for cash and risk. Teams will be expected to contribute to cash flow forecasting, working capital optimization, and fraud checks.
As companies work to avoid cash flow issues, AP automation provides an easier way to manage payments, secure early-payment discounts, and maintain healthy cash flow, with 60% of AP managers reporting that automation improves cashflow management. Automation handles the manual and repetitive tasks within AP workflows, allowing AP teams to focus on analyzing data, supporting the business, and making informed decisions.
2) EDI and e-invoicing: Stronger compliance pressure
With over 60 countries already enforcing e-invoicing mandates, and more mandates going live across Europe and other regions in 2026, compliance pressure on AP teams continues to increase. At the same time, EDI is becoming more widely adopted in the United States as a way to exchange structured invoices. These European and global regulations require AP teams to handle structured invoices, real-time reporting, and audit-ready data. One of the main goals of electronic invoicing is to reduce inefficiencies and speed up processing. Thanks to their structured format, electronic invoices can achieve near-100% recognition rates, eliminating many of the errors associated with manual data entry. However, e-invoicing also introduces stricter compliance requirements. Governments are rolling out mandates to improve tax transparency and reduce fraud, making automation essential for companies that need to scale.
By combining automation with e-invoicing and EDI, organizations can go beyond compliance. With AP automation in JD Edwards in place, invoices can be processed quickly and accurately, while adapting to regional mandates and ensuring ongoing compliance.
3) Native JD Edwards automation wins over generic AP tools
In 2026, AP teams that embrace automation will be the ones that thrive. With business moving faster than ever, and pressure mounting to reduce costs and scale efficiently, more organizations will seek solutions that are natively integrated with JD Edwards. Experience has shown that generic AP tools often introduce integration complexity, slowing down implementation and driving up costs. The closer automation sits to JD Edwards’ native processes, the lower the operational burden and the higher the ROI.
This will become even more critical in 2026, as e-invoicing mandates demand accurate invoice posting, full audit trails, and real-time compliance. These records need to live exactly where finance teams trust them: inside JD Edwards.
4) AI-driven processes will go beyond OCR
The AI-driven invoice processing market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.6%, with North America leading adoption. In 2026, companies will increasingly use AI for more than just data capture. AI will support line-level invoice understanding, GL coding, and exception handling, significantly reducing the need for manual intervention. As a result, businesses can expect to see lower cost-per-invoice and more scalable AP operations.
5) Full procure-to-pay visibility and supplier experience
Many companies still rely on fragmented data and disconnected systems. But in 2026, end-to-end visibility across the procure-to-pay (P2P) cycle will be essential to stay compliant with e-invoicing mandates and also to stay competitive. Having a complete view of purchase orders, receipts, invoices, and payments will help AP teams manage operations more effectively. Dashboards and real-time reporting will become vital tools for tracking KPIs and identifying bottlenecks. At the same time, supplier experience is becoming a critical priority. Poor communication and unclear processes lead to more vendor queries, higher AP workload, fewer discounts, and strained relationships. In 2026, more companies will invest in supplier portals to create a streamlined vendor experience, giving suppliers a self-service way to upload documents, track payments, and reduce back-and-forth emails and manual tasks.
Conclusion: 2026 is the year of AP automation
These AP trends for 2026 show that AP is no longer just an administrative function; it’s becoming a key pillar of financial health. And that role is only growing stronger.
To stay compliant with e-invoicing mandates, scale operations efficiently, and gain full P2P visibility, automating accounts payable processes will be essential, especially for JD Edwards users.
By choosing an AP automation solution that’s natively embedded in JD Edwards, organizations can avoid integration challenges and unlock true end-to-end automation. SCANMAN AP Automation, fully built inside your JD Edwards environment, should be your go-to choice in 2026. It delivers deep integration, faster processing, and full control. Watch a demo of the solution here.
