A note from BILL CEO and Founder, René Lacerte
AI is a factor influencing every decision business and finance leaders are making. Is it the silver bullet businesses need in an uncertain economy? Judging by the latest data from BILL in the first half of 2025, leaders seem to think so.
In The 2025 BILL Report: Building the Future of Finance, we surveyed 1,000 owners, executives and business leaders to get more insight into how sentiment is driving strategy. The results paint a stark picture of businesses navigating rising external pressures. A dynamic economic environment, and uncertainty around tariffs. A concerning rise in fraud. Even a talent shortage in the accounting industry is leading businesses to make hard decisions about financial strategies and resource allocation.
The data also shows us that leaders and executives are not satisfied with the status quo when it comes to running and growing their businesses. Leaders see more opportunity to leverage AI and automation right across the business to drive greater success. This points to an important trend: SMBs are changing how they work, who they work with, and how they win.
AI and automation are increasingly being seen as ways to fight fraud, reduce costs, provide ballast against an uncertain economy, and unlock new opportunities. Half of businesses recognize they need better cash flow management in order to win. One-third of businesses plan to be completely paperless by the 2026 tax season, and 90% believe going paperless in the next 5 years is realistic. Almost 40% of businesses are automating in the next six months to cut costs. Businesses are also recalibrating their strategies for success, with plans to raise prices and diversify suppliers.
Despite the optimism around AI, adoption is still uneven. Established businesses are the most enthusiastic about adopting AI, with businesses founded in the last 12 months still skeptical about AI use-cases. Businesses are also engaged in an innovation battle, with AI as both a liability causing increased fraud and a critical asset to detect and prevent fraud. The costs of delayed AI adoption are mounting, as an evolving operating environment requires more agility in business and financial strategy.
In 2025, there is one certainty: the businesses of tomorrow will look very different to anything we’ve seen before. The job for technology companies is clear: SMBs want and need AI and automation that helps them solve real problems, with real data and in real time. At BILL, we’re excited to be at the forefront of this new era.
— René Lacerte, CEO and Founder, BILL
The 2025 BILL Report: Building the Future of Finance
AI, Fraud and the Drivers of Business Success
At BILL, we’ve made it our business to know businesses. We take the pulse of leaders regularly to understand what is driving business success—and The 2025 BILL Report: Building the Future of Finance does just that.
We surveyed 1,000 owners, executives, and business leaders from across the country, working in different industries, and representing businesses ranging in size and age.
Section 1: The AI security paradox: battle of the bots
Fraud has always been a concern for businesses, but this threat is both increasing and evolving with AI advancements. Businesses face an intensifying fraud problem on two fronts: 56% of respondents report an increase in fraud attempts over the past year, while 42% note that these attacks are growing more sophisticated.
This combination of increased frequency and complexity makes fraud more common and harder to combat—which explains why almost all (92%) respondents indicate they worry about fraud.
The relationship between the proliferation of AI and fraud creates a paradox:
What’s contributing to the rise in scale and sophistication of fraud attempts? AI. But what’s helping businesses prevent fraud and combat bad actors? Also AI.
As bad actors use AI to develop more sophisticated attacks, businesses are countering with more advanced detection and prevention systems. The result is an innovation battle that makes fraud an increasingly complex problem—with AI right at the center.
Despite a sharp increase in the fraud environment, only 16% of brand new businesses (less than one year old) indicate they are worried about fraud. As businesses grow and mature, they become more visible targets while often still developing their security infrastructure. This creates a critical vulnerability window for brand new businesses that will increasingly become attractive targets, but may not yet have enterprise-level security measures.
Our takeaway: The best way to protect your business is to adopt financial technology that is leveraging advanced AI to fight fraud.
Instead of responding to threats after they occur, look for integrated fintech solutions that allow for active monitoring and early detection throughout payment workflows and systems. Platforms that provide visibility across all transactions help you spot unusual activity and stop fraud attempts before the damage is done.
The best platforms will use AI to identify evolving fraud attempts, while maintaining high-quality data standards for accurate risk assessment. This lets business leaders focus on running their operations while their financial technology partners manage the complex security landscape.
Section 2: Adopters vs skeptics: established businesses leading the way on AI
AI is increasingly being seen by businesses as not just ‘new’, but ‘necessary’. Surprisingly, though, the businesses most enthusiastic and open to adopting AI are established businesses that have been around for longer and have more complex needs and operations. The newest businesses—those started in the last 12 months—report the highest levels of skepticism around AI.
Among businesses operating for over 20 years, 62% expect AI will enhance marketing efforts and 70% believe it will strengthen financial forecasting. This compares with just 47% of businesses under 5 years old.
Despite some skepticism, leaders recognize AI could provide essential support needed to start a business.
Across businesses of all sizes, leaders are thinking big and plan to use AI to improve their entire operations.
Our takeaway: The transition from manual to AI-powered processes represents far more than a technical update.
As AI continues eliminating routine tasks, business owners and finance leaders can redirect their time and energy toward the work that truly drives growth. This shift doesn't just save hours—it changes how leaders allocate their attention and make strategic business decisions.
We're seeing businesses of all sizes benefit from this transformation. As AI systems and agents become more sophisticated, we envision a future where even the smallest businesses can access the same financial operation capabilities as the Fortune 500, without needing large teams. The result is a business landscape where companies compete based on strategy and innovation rather than their capacity to handle administrative work.
Section 3: Recalibrating strategies amidst economic uncertainty
Businesses are adopting a variety of approaches to maintain resilience and agility in an uncertain environment. This appears to be more strategic than reactionary as businesses factor their long-term growth and market position into their decision-making.
These actions vary by business size. Smaller businesses (20 employees or less) are more likely to absorb costs and explore new markets. Larger organizations show a stronger tendency toward operational adjustments like renegotiating vendor contracts (28% for businesses with 201+ employees vs. 15% for businesses with 20 or less employees).
Businesses are fighting to not raise prices in the face of tariffs. Instead, they are exploring multiple avenues to maintain price competitiveness while protecting margins.
Our takeaway: Economic uncertainty is driving businesses toward more strategic and comprehensive adaptation.
It’s a sophisticated approach by businesses of all sizes as they navigate economic headwinds. Rather than simply cutting costs across the board or raising prices universally, businesses are taking a more surgical approach, combining tactical adjustments like supplier diversification with strategic shifts in product offerings and market focus.
For technology providers, this represents an opportunity to support businesses not just with efficiency tools, but with strategic intelligence that enables better decision-making during uncertain times. The companies that will thrive aren't just those that cut costs, but those that make smarter decisions about where to invest and where to conserve resources.
Section 4: The future of work: goodbye paper; hello cash flow
Manual processes and ‘busy work’ are slowing businesses down and costing them money, and paper dependency remains deeply embedded across organizations. This is a pain point felt most acutely during tax season, with three-quarters of respondents describing this past tax season as a headache.
Larger organizations face more complex barriers when it comes to going paperless. Half of the largest businesses (501-1,000 employees) report that burning paper receipts today would cause significant impact and chaos, compared to just 24% of sole proprietors.
Despite the challenges, the data points to a shift in how businesses approach financial record-keeping.
90% of businesses believe going completely paperless within five years is realistic. One-third plan to be 100% paperless in 12 months.
Big businesses are leading the way on automation. Only 27% of small companies (1-20 employees) plan to go paperless by the 2026 tax season. This increases to 35% among medium-sized companies (21-200 employees) and jumps to 40% for companies with 201-1000 employees.
Businesses are not just looking to technology to help them get rid of paper—cash flow management illustrates another critical gap between aspiration and reality. Businesses understand the importance of cash flow visibility, but their ability to monitor falls short.
Almost two-thirds of businesses can’t access current cash positions on demand. For one in five businesses, it can take days or weeks.
As businesses grow and their finances become more complex, cash flow visibility becomes harder. While 46% of sole proprietors maintain real-time cash position access, this drops to only one-third for mid-size companies.
This lack of access to real-time cash positions is hurting businesses.
When financial data is hard to access or is outdated, business leaders make decisions based on incomplete or inaccurate information. This was a particular concern for the largest companies (501-1,000 employees), with 61% seeing better cash flow management as essential to enable faster responses to opportunities.
What’s holding businesses back from achieving better visibility? More than one-third of businesses cite multiple banking relationships as the main barrier to better cash visibility, while 29% blame current technology limitations of financial software.
Our takeaway: The path to a paperless future isn't just about convenience—it’s about speed and control.
Integrated financial technology platforms allow businesses to move past paper-based processes while maintaining proper record-keeping. This is about more than convenience. It's fundamentally changing how financial information flows through a business, making it more accessible, accurate, and useful throughout the year.
As companies grow, these platforms become even more valuable by standardizing financial workflows across multiple departments and entities, and giving leaders more visibility and control of their cash flow. For too long, businesses have had to choose between speed and control. The right technology gives businesses both—so they can better leverage cash flow and finance as a strategy for success.
Section 5: Accounting talent crisis threatens to cost businesses time and money
While tax season comes and goes, the accounting industry talent shortage has become a year-round concern for businesses. This shortage didn’t happen overnight—but businesses are now concerned it will impact their day-to-day operations and bottom line.
77% of businesses worry about the rising costs of accounting services, and 60% may be forced to handle more work in house.
These numbers may alarm accountants. But despite some concerns about the future, the results show that the relationship between businesses and accountants today is positive, and continues to be seen by businesses as an essential part of their planning and success.
A strong majority of businesses describe a healthy relationship with their accountant right now.
Our takeaway: Accountants should view these challenges as an opportunity to modernize tech stacks and adopt new solutions.
With proper technology, accounting firms can serve more clients while providing greater value through strategic advice rather than routine compliance work. This shift benefits both parties: businesses get more valuable guidance, while accountants focus on rewarding work that technology cannot replace. The talent shortage in accounting is accelerating this transition, with firms investing in automation to handle routine tasks while redirecting skilled professionals to advisory services.
For businesses concerned about rising costs or service delays, choosing accounting partners with strong technology foundations offers protection against industry-wide staffing challenges while enhancing the strategic value they receive from these crucial relationships.
An intelligent financial operations platform for business success
BILL's integrated financial operations platform addresses these exact pain points, giving businesses the tools to automate manual tasks, improve cash flow visibility, and operate more strategically. By investing in AI-powered financial operations now, businesses can focus less on paperwork and more on the vision that inspired them to start their business in the first place.
About the Study
The 2025 BILL Report: Building the Future of Finance, conducted by Rep Data, was fielded in March 2025. Respondents included 1,003 business owners and financial decision-makers in the U.S. with 1-1,000 employees. The survey sample was not drawn from a list of BILL customers. All percentages were rounded to the nearest whole number.
