Originally aired November 13, 2025 on Extropy On AIr.
At IOFM 2025, the conversation shifted from buying the first system to figuring out what comes next. Fresh from the conference in Las Vegas, Extropy CEO Ravit Gutman and Mike Jasper share what they saw: a more mature audience filling the gaps after transformation, a new focus on leadership, AP roles moving from processor to analyst, and how AI is redefining finance rather than replacing it.
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Key takeaways
- The IOFM audience has matured. Most have been through at least one transformation and want to know what comes next.
- The focus has shifted to filling gaps around existing systems: reconciliation, payment recovery, international payments and integration.
- AP is evolving from processor to analyzer to catalyst, because AP holds the data on all of the organization’s spend.
- AI is redefining finance, not replacing it. Technology handles the what. People handle the why.
- Order-to-cash and payment automation are gaining momentum, with fintechs taking the lead from banks.
What changed at IOFM 2025?
Ravit, who has watched IOFM evolve over the past five years, noticed a more mature audience. In the past, many attendees were looking for solutions to get through their first phase of transformation. This year, most had already been through at least one, and some had implementations that didn’t land the way they hoped. They came to see what they might be missing and what to add to their existing ecosystem.
Mike heard the same thing. Fewer conversations were about full procure-to-pay or AP automation projects, and more were about filling the gaps around them: optimizing integrations, improving the payment process and getting systems to work together under the CFO. Ravit saw that reflected on the exhibit floor, with new providers focused on reconciliation, payment recovery and international payments. Mike also noticed attendees were less focused on collecting information about a specific solution and more focused on results.
Ravit sees a hunger for peer stories. People want to hear how others with the same ERP or from the same industry solved their problems, what they aren’t thinking about, and what life looks like after a finance transformation.
Why did leadership take center stage?
IOFM added a leadership track, and Ravit led three sessions in it. Mike saw more people come to learn how to grow as leaders in finance, not just how to handle 1099 reporting or use Excel more effectively. Ravit welcomed it. Many teams have automated and are now asking, “Now what?” When she asked the room how many people had implemented something in the past year that their team wasn’t using the way it was meant to be used, it struck a chord.
Her message has shifted too. After years of talking about people, process and technology as a whole, she now says the technology stage is behind us. The focus is people, process and purpose: helping people understand why changes are happening, how a new system affects them and how they can grow in their roles.
How is the role of AP changing?
For years, AP has been seen as a processing function, measured by how many invoices each person handles. Ravit sees teams that started their transformation a year or two ago moving into analyzer and customer support roles, working with the data their new systems produce.
That data matters. AP holds the keys to the kingdom: visibility into the organization’s entire spend. But few teams have been shown how to turn that data into strategy. The most mature teams are becoming catalysts, partnering with other departments and providing the insight that shapes decisions. Mike remembers watching people’s faces in Ravit’s session as she described AP partnering with marketing, sales and plant operations. For many, it was the first time they pictured AP beyond processing.
How is AI redefining finance?
Ravit says AI isn’t replacing finance teams. It is redefining them. AI can flag anomalies, predict cash flow strains and even draft vendor emails, but it can’t build trust, show empathy or influence decisions. Technology will always handle the what, and people will handle the why, interpreting the data and telling the story behind it. That is where high-performing teams set the standard.
Mike recalled a point from one of Ravit’s sessions: AI won’t take your job, but someone who knows how to use AI effectively might. Mike compares it to the arrival of OCR, when people feared for their jobs and instead found the tactical, mundane work taken off their plates so they could be more strategic. Ravit adds that CFOs are pushing for more AI every year, and the teams that can quickly redesign roles and connect AI outputs to the business will pull ahead.
What other trends stood out at IOFM 2025?
- New solutions, faster. Ravit saw providers on the floor that were built just 18 months earlier, putting established players on notice.
- Building your own. Some mature teams are going back to building their own AI and utility tools to close specific gaps, an area where Extropy helps clients with their unique use cases.
- Order-to-cash momentum. Mike remembers when AR had its own separate days at IOFM. Now it is integrated, with shared services teams often running both AP and AR, and many teams that succeeded in procure-to-pay now being asked to do the same in order-to-cash.
- Payment automation. Years ago, banks dominated the payments conversation at IOFM. Now it is fintechs, giving companies more flexibility with their banks. Ravit has long seen a strong payment strategy as a way to improve cash flow and even help fund a broader finance transformation. Mike, who has worked with the Business Payments Coalition and the Faster Payments Coalition, says finance teams want the benefits without needing to become payments experts themselves.
Both encourage finance leaders to attend IOFM and to bring team members they want to grow, a meaningful investment in their development.
In their words
It’s not about replacing us. It’s about redefining us.
Ravit Gutman, Extropy Advisors
We’re not going to lose our jobs to a computer. We’re going to lose our jobs to somebody who can effectively use that technology if we don’t learn it ourselves.
Mike Jasper, Extropy Advisors
About the speakers
Ravit Gutman is Founder and CEO of Extropy Advisors, a women-owned finance transformation consultancy.
Mike Jasper is VP of Finance Transformation at Extropy Advisors, where he leads digital transformation and client success, working hands-on with clients to set success criteria, optimize their people, process and technology, and measure the results.
FAQ
What were the biggest trends at IOFM 2025?
Ravit Gutman and Mike Jasper saw a more mature audience that had already been through at least one transformation and was focused on filling gaps, like reconciliation, payment recovery and international payments. They also saw a strong leadership track, more order-to-cash content, a wave of new solution providers, companies building their own AI utility tools, and payment automation shifting from banks to fintechs.
How is the role of accounts payable changing?
AP is moving from processor to analyzer to catalyst. Because AP sees the organization’s entire spend, automated teams now hold valuable data. The most mature teams use it to partner with departments like marketing, sales and operations and to influence strategic decisions, rather than measuring success by invoices processed per person.
Will AI replace AP and finance jobs?
Ravit’s view is that AI is not replacing finance, it is redefining it. AI can flag anomalies, predict cash flow strains and draft vendor emails, but it can’t build trust, show empathy or influence decisions. Technology handles the what, and people handle the why. The real risk is falling behind people who know how to use AI well.
Keep exploring
- More episodes of Extropy On AIr
- Before the conference: The Future of Finance: From Scorekeeper to Strategist
- Related: The Extropy Think Tank: Where Finance Leaders Talk Honestly
- Why Extropy
Wondering what comes after your first transformation? Book a discovery call with our team.
