Part 2: The Accounts Payable Trends Paving the Way for AI Digital Coworkers
In today’s finance landscape, companies are under constant pressure to streamline operations while facing hiring challenges and rising costs. Few areas illustrate this tension more than accounts payable. Despite years of “automation,” many AP departments still struggle with integration, exception handling, and staffing shortages.
Ken Virgin, CEO of Aimyable, saw these challenges firsthand — and believed the industry needed a new approach.
Why Accounts Payable Needed Something New
“Even though automation had gotten pretty good, there were still a lot of exceptions handled manually,” Ken explains. “On top of that, when AP managers tried to hire clerks, the applicant pool just wasn’t what it used to be. The right skillsets and personalities were harder to find, and departments struggled to fill those roles.”
The issue wasn’t just people. Integration remained a sticking point. Many companies never fully adopted AP automation because the tools couldn’t easily plug into their existing systems. The result? Bottlenecks, delays, and teams that still spent too much time on low-value, manual work.
The Inspiration Behind Aimyable
Rather than tinkering at the edges of existing automation, Ken took a step back and asked a bigger question: What could AI do if we started fresh?
“The most basic effort in accounts payable happens at the AP clerk level,” he says. “It’s a wide variety of tasks — coding invoices, handling exceptions, routing approvals. Instead of focusing AI on just one or two tasks, what if we created an AI coworker that could take on all of them?”
That line of thinking became the spark for Aimyable. By designing an AI Digital Coworker, Aimy, the company could solve two problems at once: eliminate the need for complex integrations and provide AP teams with a reliable, always-available team member.
Introducing Aimy: The First AI Digital Coworker
Aimy isn’t another automation tool or added integration. She’s a digital coworker who works just like a new AP clerk would. Installed on a dedicated workstation, Aimy controls the mouse and keyboard to complete AP tasks step-by-step, following the same processes human clerks do.
Because Aimy works at the workstation level, there’s no need to rip and replace existing systems or launch massive IT projects. AP managers can assign tasks directly, and Aimy executes them consistently — reducing exceptions, improving accuracy, and freeing human clerks to focus on higher-value work.
Why This Matters for Finance Leaders
For CFOs, Controllers, and AP Managers, Aimyable’s approach changes the game. It means faster adoption, fewer headaches around hiring, and greater visibility into AP operations. Most importantly, it helps finance leaders turn accounts payable from a bottleneck into a strategic advantage.
As Ken puts it: “Creating a digital coworker really resonated with me and my experience with payables. That’s why I decided to go full force in this direction and create the first AI digital clerk.”
