For decades, accounts receivable has been treated as a back-office cost center, a function focused on chasing overdue invoices and managing bad debt. But according to a recent webinar hosted by The Paypers and TreviPay, that same data could become a powerful tool for revenue growth instead.
In the session, payments industry specialist Masha Cilliers and Dan Zimmerman, Chief Product and Technology Officer at TreviPay, explored how AI-powered payments infrastructure is helping businesses reclaim working capital, predict customer churn, and unlock hidden revenue buried in their AR data.
Here are some of the webinar's key takeaways.
The hidden cost of the order-to-cash cycle
Dan Zimmerman opened by laying out the realities CFOs face in B2B. Roughly 50% of invoices are overdue at any given time, bad debt erodes hard-won revenue, and DSO routinely stretches 5 to 15 days beyond agreed invoice terms. Add in merchant fees from card payments and an escalating fraud arms race, and the pressure on finance teams becomes clear.
These challenges, Zimmerman noted, cut across industries, from high-tech companies to retail giants and transportation companies, and are too often treated as structural realities rather than solvable inefficiencies.
From cost reduction to revenue generation
AI has already automated pieces of the order-to-cash cycle, like payment application through pattern recognition and OCR, but Zimmerman argued the bigger opportunity lies in revenue, not just cost savings.
TreviPay's zero-touch platform ensures payment by day two, no matter the invoice status, eliminating DSO uncertainty and freeing working capital. On the automation side, the company has reached a 94% same-day payment posting accuracy rate using generative AI and machine learning, an important gain in an industry where buyers often run credit lines at 50-70% utilisation and need fast payment application to unlock further spending capacity.
The silent B2B revenue problem
One of the most valuable insights from the webinar was what Dan Zimmerman called the silent B2B revenue problem. Drawing on over 40 years of B2B payments data, TreviPay's data science team has built machine learning models that can predict customer churn six to nine months before it happens.
By analysing spending frequency, order value trends, and SKU changes, these models can detect when accounts are going quiet long before sales or operations teams notice. As Masha pointed out, this mirrors what B2C companies have understood for years: proactive engagement is essential for retention.
Turning insights into action: the AI Growth Center
TreviPay's newly launched AI Growth Center comprises four modules designed to make AR data actionable:
- Customer Health Dashboard - a comprehensive view of engagement beyond days-past-due metrics
- Predictive Churn Models – industry- and client-specific models flagging at-risk accounts months in advance
- Engagement Manager – pre-built, AI-templated outreach tools for at-risk customers
- Incentive Builder – automated, milestone-based discount and fulfillment tools
Looking ahead: agentic AI and regulation
Looking forward, Dan Zimmerman expressed excitement about agentic AI, autonomous agents handling purchasing and fulfillment on both sides of B2B relationships. On the other hand, he noted that some questions remain, especially around authentication, authorisation, and guardrails.
On regulation, he pointed to frameworks like the EU AI Act as early signs of accountability standards taking shape, while cautioning that regulation often struggles to keep pace with technological change, a pattern that's already familiar across the payments landscape.
What's coming next?
The message from the speakers is clear: AR data is a strategic asset, not just an operational necessity. Businesses that continue to treat it as a cost center and take B2B customers for granted risk losing revenue to more agile competitors.
By embracing AI-powered tools, whether through platforms like TreviPay or internal capabilities, companies can turn AR data into a growth engine, predict and prevent churn, and free up working capital to fuel expansion. The data is already there; the question is whether businesses will use it strategically.
Want to learn more? Watch the full webinar, Reclaim Working Capital with AI-Powered Payments Infrastructure, hosted by The Paypers and TreviPay.
About Paula Albu
Paula Albu has experience in content writing and editing, as well as being a creative storyteller. As a Junior Editor at The Paypers, she investigates Web3 technologies along with the latest trends and regulations in banking and fintech. Paula is committed to turning complex industry topics into engaging, accessible content that resonates with readers and creates a meaningful connection. She is available via LinkedIn or at paula@thepaypers.com.
About TreviPay
TreviPay, The Pay by Invoice Company™, is the global B2B payments infrastructure partner for manufacturers, retailers, travel companies and banks. With our fully managed platform, intelligent apps, and 40 years of buyer intelligence, we help buyers buy, and sellers grow and get paid faster. Behind the scenes, we streamline the order-to-cash process, from fast customer onboarding and predictive marketing to smart invoicing and settlement, all powered by AI that improves with every transaction. The result is fewer errors, higher AOV and guaranteed DSO. Enabling more than $8B in global trade annually, TreviPay operates in 35 countries and was named a Leader for Embedded Payment Applications by IDC and a top vendor in cash application by The Hackett Group.
