It’s halfway through 2025, and if you’re thinking about planning for 2026, it’s a good time to reflect on priorities. Reviewing predictions can be a good starting place—are the priorities as predicted? Did you pass on something you should be investing in? Or were the predictions entirely wrong?
At the beginning of 2025, we published our Top Trends for 2025 eBook, focusing on accounts payable automation, AI, the rise of payment fraud and the accounting shortage.
Let’s see where these trends stand now.
1. Financial Transformations: A Focus on Accounts Payable Automation
While some technological advancements are moving slower than anticipated, investments into automation are not. A recent Gartner report stated generative AI, machine learning and cloud ERPs are the top three financial technologies CFOs are expecting to invest the most in for 2025. Even for organizations that have already invested in a cloud ERP like NetSuite, the platforms are considered high value and investments are set to increase.
As organizations look to move quickly and adapt to a changing financial order, achieving efficiency and scale has never been more important.
Manual processes are also more expensive, costing an average of $9.87 for a single invoice and taking over 10 days to process. This is a huge barrier to scaling for many businesses looking to get ahead.
For organizations looking to make greater investments into ERP technology like NetSuite, keep in mind financial automation tools should be focused on the following:
- Digitally onboarding vendors, ensuring accurate banking information
- Scanning invoices using AI-enabled capabilities
- 3-way match invoices, POs and receipts in real-time
- Process secure ACH or check payments to cover all your payment needs
2. AI Continues Onwards and Upwards
For the last two years it has felt like AI is all anyone can talk about. On the flipside, it can be hard to track whether AI use is actually widespread, or even being applied effectively. For an industry like finance where new technology is adopted extremely slowly, the AI rush has not been as strong.
According to The Institute of Financial Operations and Leadership 2025 Accounts Payable Automation Trends Report, 2023 was the beginning of a noticeable uptick in efficiency gains, but those gains were due to automation, not AI. Only 7% of respondents were currently using AI technologies to improve their AP processes, but 40% were considering implementing AI-based technology to improve their accounts payable function within the next year.
The report also stated 64% of respondents were experiencing stress caused by outdated processes as their biggest hurdle.
3. Payment Fraud Continues to Grow
Fraud has always been an issue for financial professionals, but the depth and breadth of the issue has gone beyond what people could imagine even three years ago. The risks are only getting worse.
According to the PYMNTS 2025 report Rising Risk: Confronting Modern AP Fraud Threats business email compromise attacks were increasing, with 63% of companies reporting being attacked, an increase of 103% from 2024.
As sophisticated AI technology enables greater success for cybercriminals with new methods like deepfakes, the risks for AP teams—always the top target for fraud and cyber attacks due to their proximity to an organization’s cash flow—are expected to grow astronomically. Already, these numbers are growing significantly YoY.
4. The Accounting Shortage Reversal: The effects of AI, or a recession indicator?
Financial operations everywhere have noticed a downturn in the amount of accountants; universities have noted a decline over the years in the number of students who are enrolling in accounting. Suggested reasons behind it include the rigorous CPA qualifications, lower salaries compared to tech, data analysis and other business-oriented majors and a general lack of appeal compared to other areas of study.
However, incoming new university students are now choosing accounting at much higher rates than in the past five years. Why?
The latest report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center in June 2025 showed a 12% increase in spring 2025 undergraduate accounting enrollment – the third consecutive semester of growth. It can be hard to extrapolate why accounting is suddenly an attractive university major after years of lagging enrollment, but fears for the economy and the lack of entry-level job opportunities in tech could be strong factors. Accounting is historically a solid career choice during times of uncertainty, and the rise in enrollment could be seen as a recession indicator. Or it could be the loss of certainty around tech jobs. Fortune 500 companies have been culling their internships in recent years, and students previously looking at other industries like tech could be opting for a perceived “safe” option.
New grads will be more aware of the impacts and efficiencies of using automation and AI in the workplace. Ensuring your new employees are set up for success will make retention of younger employees easier for organizations looking to grow.
For organizations looking to invest in NetSuite or improve their accounts payable NetSuite setup with automation, investing in your employees and NetSuite consulting services can be the gamechanger your organization is looking for.
For more information on AP Automation designed for NetSuite, click here.
