How CFOs Convert Payments Data Into Growth Signals Using AI

B2B is sitting atop a goldmine of operational exhaust in the form of payment data, and it’s mostly concentrated in the finance function.

Every invoice issued, payment received, and purchase order fulfilled contains latent information about how businesses interact. Traditionally, that information has been relied on mostly as a ledger of past performance. But as the Wednesday (March 11) launch of a suite of artificial intelligence agents for B2B growth by Fractal highlights, with the right frameworks in place, disparate finance information can become an AI-driven guide to future revenue.

By combining transactional signals such as invoice timing, payment patterns, order frequency and credit use with behavioral indicators like portal logins, dispute activity and procurement cycles, firms are increasingly able to turn their cash cycle tech stack into something resembling a B2B customer data platform (CDP). Unlike marketing-centric CDPs that rely on clicks and impressions, this emerging AI-driven intelligence layer can be grounded in financial behavior, which may arguably be the most reliable expression of intent in commercial relationships.

It is the convergence of mature data infrastructure and accessible AI tools that explains why the shift is accelerating now rather than earlier. Enterprises are reaching a point today where the marginal value of additional automation is diminishing, while at the same time, the potential value of insight extraction is just beginning to be realized.

Read also: CFOs Tackle B2B Payments Delinquency by Using Data and AI

From Back-Office Automation to Revenue Intelligence

For much of the AI innovation cycle, enterprise initiatives have been relegated to the back office. Early deployments promised efficiency gains by automating invoicing, collections workflows and credit adjudication. The returns were real but narrow and included fewer manual touches, shorter processing cycles and incremental cost savings. AI was framed primarily as a tool for expense reduction rather than growth creation.

Today’s shift, however, is less about replacing tasks and more about revealing patterns that were previously invisible.

This shift matters because B2B revenue is rarely driven by impulse decisions. It evolves through signals embedded in routine operations. A customer who gradually extends payment cycles, reduces order sizes or increases exception requests is communicating something long before a contract is renegotiated. AI systems trained on these patterns can detect inflection points months earlier than traditional reporting allows.

“Folks are just starting to understand that AI isn’t just automation with kind of sexier marketing,” Finexio CEO and founder Ernest Rolfson told PYMNTS in December. “Embracing it as infrastructure lets you use your data as a strategic asset.”

As these practices spread, the purpose of the cash cycle is being reconsidered. Rather than serving solely as a mechanism for processing transactions, it is evolving into a platform for monitoring customer vitality and informing commercial strategy.

This redefinition does not diminish the importance of accuracy, compliance or risk control. Instead, it layers analytical capability onto existing responsibilities. The same processes that ensure invoices are paid can also illuminate where demand is strengthening, where engagement is weakening, and how operational decisions influence future sales.

See also: Vibe Coding Comes to Finance as CFOs Embrace Conversational AI

A Convergence of Commercial and Financial Functions

The moment reflects the intersection of two long-developing trends. Over the past decade, companies have digitized invoicing, migrated financial systems to cloud platforms, and standardized data across global operations. These efforts created large, structured datasets, although their strategic value was not always clear.

The historical constraint was not a lack of information but the absence of tools capable of interpreting it at scale. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems were built to ensure consistency and compliance, not to detect patterns. As a result, companies often relied on anecdotal signals from sales teams to gauge account health, even while holding years of objective behavioral evidence within their financial systems.

Perhaps the most transformative impact of this shift is organizational rather than technical. B2B firms have long separated revenue generation and revenue realization into distinct domains. Sales organizations focused on bookings, while finance teams concentrated on invoicing and cash flow. Data fragmentation reinforced this divide.

However, as predictive analysis becomes embedded in financial workflows, the traditional boundary between finance and revenue operations is weakening. The Time to Cash report from PYMNTS Intelligence found that 83.3% of surveyed chief financial officers are planning to use at least one AI tool to help with cash flow cycle improvements.

In this environment, the distinction between operational efficiency and revenue generation becomes less pronounced. Financial infrastructure, long regarded as a cost of doing business, may emerge as a primary instrument for sustaining it.

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