BILL.com processes $89 billion in quarterly payment volume, with 72.6% of revenue coming from transaction fees related to AI-enhanced automation.
Only 5% of large SMEs have fully automated AP and AR processes. BILL aims for a market gap that can be filled to 95%.
BILL’s new customer cohorts are spending 40% more than previous cohorts, while the company maintains gross margins of 83.8%.
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Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming financial operations, and several companies are working to automate accounts payable, receivables and expense management for small and medium-sized businesses. We looked at four stocks to see who benefits most from AI-powered financial automation.
Bill.com (NYSE:BILL) provides cloud-based financial automation to SMBs, processing approximately $89 billion in quarterly payment volume. The company recently launched BILL AI Agents to enable contactless B2B transactions and serves nearly 500,000 businesses through partnerships with NetSuite, Paychex and leading accounting software providers.
Intuition (NASDAQ:INTU) dominates small business software through QuickBooks, TurboTax, and Credit Karma. With trailing twelve month revenue of $19.43 billion, Intuit operates at scale and maintains a profit margin of 21.2%. The company has integrated AI capabilities into its product suite, particularly in QuickBooks Online. Of course, this is a relatively small part of their business.
Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) manages payroll and human resources services for more than 745,000 clients. The company recently partnered with BILL to integrate financial automation into its payroll platform. Paychex has struggled in 2025, down 15.97% year-to-date, suggesting it needs a modernization to compete.
Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) owns NetSuite, the cloud ERP platform that deeply integrates with BILL’s financial automation tools. Oracle’s massive footprint and investments in AI infrastructure position it as the leading provider of financial software to the middle market, although recent volatility (down 18.40% month-over-month) reflects broader enterprise software concerns.
As I mentioned with Intuit above, Oracle is a sprawling company with numerous segments across all areas of technology. While they will participate in this obvious trend, let’s not overstate its importance in relation to their broader bets. However, if you were to create an ETF for this, they would definitely be there!
Revenue exposure to AI financial automation speaks volumes. BILL generates 72.6% of its revenue from transaction fees directly linked to the volume of payments flowing through its AI-enhanced platform. Core revenue grew 14% year-over-year in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, with payments volume up 12%. The company maintains a gross margin of 83.8%, demonstrating the scalability of software-based automation.
Intuit’s QuickBooks segment represents its primary exposure to SMB financial automation, but it is only part of a diversified portfolio that includes consumer tax software. Intuit operates profitably at scale with a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 29, compared to 25 for BILL. However, Intuit’s size means that the percentage growth in AI features will be incremental.
Paychex is the one facing the most pressure. Its 16.56% decline over the past year suggests customers are demanding more than traditional payroll processing. The BILL partnership fills this gap by adding accounts payable and expense management capabilities that Paychex lacks organically. For Paychex, AI automation is defensive.
Oracle benefits indirectly from NetSuite subscriptions, but financial automation represents only a small fraction of its $53 billion revenue base. The company’s AI investments primarily focus on databases and cloud infrastructure rather than SME financial workflows.
René Lacerte, CEO of BILL highlighted the market opportunity: “Only 5% of large SMEs have fully automated their AP and AR processes (…) When it comes to financial operations for small and medium-sized businesses, we are very well positioned to respond to this large new opportunity.
Lacerte also highlighted its competitive advantages: “We have enormous scale. We have $320 billion a year on the platform. We have a breadth and depth of payment products, 12 different payment products on the platform that no one else has. That gives us a unique opportunity to leverage data.”
Customer testimonials confirm this. Derek Braun, FP&A Director at FairWave, said, “We were able to do twice as much work without hiring an additional AP clerk, saving us at least $75,000 per year.
BILL CFO John Rettig noted that new customer cohorts are spending 40% more than previous cohorts, showing that the AI-enhanced platform is attracting higher value businesses.
Based on revenue exposure, customer adoption and management execution, BILL appears best positioned to benefit from AI financial automation. The company derives the majority of its revenue directly from transaction volume flowing through AI-enhanced workflows, and its 95% fillable market penetration gap represents years of runway for growth. BILL’s 83.8% gross margin and improving profitability (19% non-GAAP operating margin in Q1) show that the business model is working at scale.
Intuit remains a solid alternative for investors looking for established profitability and diversification, although AI automation will generate lower percentage gains given the company’s size. Paychex benefits from technological catch-up thanks to partnerships. Oracle provides infrastructure but has no direct exposure to the SMB automation wave.
AI-powered financial automation is reshaping the way SMEs manage money movement. BILL’s focused business model, 95% market penetration opportunity and direct transaction-based revenue make it the primary beneficiary. Investors should monitor payment volume growth and customer cohort spending trends as key indicators of whether BILL can capture this opportunity.
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