HPS set to launch Agentic AI, a digital co-pilot to streamline payments and high-value work

Agentic AI for Payments: What Finance Leaders Need to Prepare For

The HPS group is preparing to launch Agentic AI (also called Agentic Commerce), an intelligent assistance solution built to automate and optimize high-value tasks. The promise is simple: a digital co-pilot that helps teams streamline payment operations and reduce manual work where it hurts the most.

If you run finance, this matters. Here's how to turn that promise into measurable outcomes, and the questions to ask before you greenlight any agentic system.

What Agentic AI Can Do Across Finance Ops

• Payment routing and fee optimization across rails and providers.
• Invoice capture, coding, and two/three-way match with human approval for exceptions.
• Cash application that auto-maps remittances and reduces unapplied cash.
• Exception handling: drafting outreach, proposing fixes, and escalating only what's necessary.
• Reconciliation across bank, gateway, and ERP with audit-ready logs.
• Sanctions/AML triage support with summaries and evidence collection for reviewers.
• Chargeback and dispute preparation with policy-based templates and deadlines.
• Treasury support: short-term cash forecasting and FX settlement suggestions.

Impact You Can Measure

• Straight-through processing rate up; manual touches per transaction down.
• Invoice-to-pay cycle time and dispute resolution time down.
• DSO reduction and fewer unapplied cash items.
• False-positive rate in alerts down; audit prep hours down.
• Cost per payment and write-offs down; chargeback win rate up.

Controls You Should Require

• Human-in-the-loop: maker-checker flows for any irreversible action.
• Auditability: complete action logs, prompts, data sources, and outputs with timestamps.
• Access control: role-based permissions, SSO, and least-privilege by dataset and action.
• Data protection: PII masking, tokenization options, data residency controls, and deletion SLAs.
• Model risk: bias, drift, and adversarial testing; clear rollback plan and version pinning.
• Compliance posture: current attestations (PCI DSS where applicable), SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001.
• Policy guardrails: spending limits, approved payment rails, and vendor-specific rules baked in.

Integration Questions for Any Vendor (Including HPS)

• ERP connectors: SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics-native or via APIs?
• Payment rails and formats: SEPA, ACH/NACHA, SWIFT, cards, real-time payments; ISO 20022 message support.
• Data sources: bank feeds, PSPs, gateways, card processors, data lakes-how is lineage tracked?
• Automation triggers: APIs, webhooks, and event streams; latency and throughput SLAs.
• Content generation: how are drafts and actions reviewed, approved, and archived?
• Change management: sandbox, simulation on historical data, and phased rollout options.
• Security: tenant isolation, key management, and incident response commitments.

90-Day Rollout Plan That Works

• Weeks 1-3: Pick two use cases (e.g., reconciliation and exception handling). Define baselines, success metrics, and approval rules.
• Weeks 4-6: Connect ERP, bank, and gateway data. Run in shadow mode to compare agent output with human actions.
• Weeks 7-9: Turn on partial automation with human approvals. Track KPIs weekly.
• Weeks 10-12: Expand to one more workflow. Tighten controls, finalize SOPs, and document audit evidence.

Procurement Checklist

• Clear business case with target KPIs and payback period.
• Pricing transparency: users, volumes, and overage conditions.
• Data ownership, model usage of your data, and right to delete or export.
• Support model: response times, dedicated CSM, and roadmap visibility.
• Exit plan: data export, deprovisioning, and process fallback.

Risk and Governance Resources

If you need a framework to pressure-test controls, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework is a useful reference point. It helps align risk, controls, and monitoring with a common language.

• NIST AI Risk Management Framework

Bottom Line

Agentic systems are moving from hype to practical finance workloads. If HPS delivers a capable co-pilot for payment ops, the winners will be teams that set firm controls, prove impact fast, and scale only what works.

Start small, measure hard, and build trust with clean integrations and airtight audit trails.

Helpful Tools for Your Team

• Curated AI tools for finance to benchmark capabilities and plan pilots.