Dispelling Automation Fears: How AP Automation Enhances and Creates Jobs
When people hear “automation,” a common fear follows: What does this mean for my job?
In accounts payable, where workflows have traditionally been manual and repetitive, the fear of job loss can feel even more real. But reality paints a much more empowering picture. Amidst new, productivity-driving automation efforts, existing staff are being presented with opportunities to upskill, adapt, and contribute in more valuable ways than ever before.
Deloitte Insights, experts in business operations research, consider combining people with automation solutions to form ‘superteams’, a key benefit of automation. This is a sentiment shared across countless industries.
In fact, a survey conducted by Deloitte indicates that 59 percent of automating organizations are focusing on retraining staff for process skills, like active listening and critical thinking, while more than half are offering retraining in cognitive abilities, such as creativity and problem solving.”
So what does this mean for accounts payable departments? It means automation is not your adversary, it’s your ally.
The True Role of AP Automation
AP automation isn’t here to take your job; it’s here to take over the monotonous, time-consuming, and draining tasks that bog down your day. This opens the door to improving your skills at more thoughtful, value-driving activities that you may not have had time for before.
Here’s what gets automated:
- Manual data entry from invoices
- Matching invoices with purchase orders and receipts
- Sending documents off for confusing, multi-level approvals
- Logging payments and updating ERP systems
And here’s what doesn’t get replaced:
- Vendor communication and relationship management
- Budget forecasting and cash flow analysis
- Exception handling and issue resolution
- Strategy-focused decision-making
Automation simply removes the noise so you can focus on the work that makes the most difference.
From Monotony to Strategy: How Automation Elevates AP Roles
When accounts payable tasks are automated, it provides a chance to learn new skills and contribute to more impactful, knowledge-based tasks. Think of AP automation as a promotion, not a replacement.
Before automation, your day might have looked like this:
- Manually keying invoice data
- Chasing down signatures
- Fixing spreadsheet errors
- Filing paper records
With automation in place:
- Analyzing spending trends
- Resolving only the outlying transactions
- Building vendor relationships
- Providing insights that influence real business decisions.
You’re no longer stuck in the weeds; You’re driving strategic value.
Real-World Impact: Stories from the Field
Take Farmward Cooperative, for example, a multi-location agri-business that implemented Square 9’s AP automation solution to streamline invoice processing across 11 locations. Instead of replacing staff, they reallocated their time, freeing the AP team from paper piles and enabling them to focus on vendor relationships and payment accuracy.
“Now, I do the majority of my work in Square 9,” explains Anna Petersen, Farmward’s accounts payable administrator. “I am in there sending out invoices to the different approvers, posting them when they come back, and dealing with different vendors on any account issues. Then there’s month end, making sure everything is ready, and working with our Controller to ensure certain things are posted.”
The result? Fewer bottlenecks, better visibility, and a more efficient team.
Reskilling & Growth: A New Path for AP Professionals
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report predicts that automation will displace 85 million jobs, but it will also create 97 million new ones in emerging fields that require human creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration.
For AP professionals, this means opportunities to:
- Develop skills in data analytics and ERP systems
- Grow into procurement or finance leadership roles
- Become automation champions within your organization
Automation isn’t about replacement, it’s about reinvention.
Communication is Key: Bringing Teams Into the Automation Conversation
Despite all this good news, change can still feel scary, especially if it’s not communicated well.
If you’re managing an accounts payable team, here are a few tips for a smooth transition into automation.
- Start with transparency: Communicate the “why” behind automation and address concerns early.
- Invite collaboration: Involve AP staff in the planning and testing process. Their insights will be invaluable to understanding your needs.
- Celebrate wins: Highlight time saved, errors reduced, and new value-added tasks AP staff are now taking on.
When teams feel included, they embrace the change and thrive within it.
You can find more tips on change management, implementation planning, and more in our Expert Accounts Payable Guide.
In Summary
Accounts payable automation doesn’t take jobs; it opens the door to new, high-value opportunities that staff at all levels can participate in.
By removing manual data entry, lengthy approvals, and lost invoices from your day-to-day tasks, automation enables AP professionals to rise above the monotony and contribute in new, meaningful ways. It’s not about doing less. It’s about doing more of what matters.
How Square 9 Can Help
Square 9 is a leading provider of AI-powered intelligent information management solutions that take the paper out of work and make it easier to get things done. With digital workflows that automate many aspects of how you work today, we make it easy by extracting information from scans or PDFs, storing documents in a searchable archive, and building digital twins of your current processes through graphical workflows.
