Business Wire·Oct 20, 2026, 9:00 AM ET

WEX Survey Reveals 85% of Businesses Face Internal Obstacles to B2B Payment Modernization

Nearly two-thirds of organizations increased their digital payment usage over the past year despite 85% reporting internal obstacles like implementation costs, integration challenges, & change management hurdles.
A significant execution gap exists where over 80% of organizations acknowledge payments drive business value, yet 54% cite security concerns & fraud affecting over a quarter of companies in the last six months as major barriers.
Fragmentation remains a key issue as 56% of organizations handle over 1,000 supplier payments monthly, with 74% of leaders struggling to manage disconnected vendors across multiple bank portals & card platforms.
94% of organizations are using or planning to adopt AI across their payment lifecycle, primarily focusing on fraud detection & risk scoring (64%), invoice processing & reconciliation (51%), & predictive cash flow forecasting (43%).
Forward-looking leaders are modernizing strategies to reduce costs (53%), streamline workflows (51%), & strengthen security controls (47%), with 44% planning to adopt agentic AI within the next two years.
The findings are based on a 2026 WEX survey of finance, accounts payable, & technology leaders from mid-market, upper-mid-market, & large enterprise organizations.