Bank of America wants AI to do treasury’s grunt work

Good morning. Treasury teams have traditionally been inundated with vast amounts of data, but the real challenge lies in discerning which information holds significance. This task is rapidly becoming the responsibility of artificial intelligence. Bank of America announced today a new feature called Payments Insights, a component of their CashPro suite.

This innovation scrutinizes payment efficiency, cross-border transactions, and working-capital performance, and juxtaposes a company's results against its industry counterparts. The objective is to minimize time spent collecting and organizing data, thereby enabling more time to be devoted to deciding how to utilize the information.

The larger question pertains to the fate of the treasury profession as AI transitions from an experimental tool to a fundamental aspect of the systems that finance teams utilize daily. This latest addition to CashPro Data Intelligence, BofA's AI-driven array of treasury analytics tools, which also encompasses cash forecasting and fraud-security scoring, has processed 213 million payments in the first half of 2026, marking a 10% increase from the previous year, according to the bank.

I inquired of Jennifer Sanctis, Bank of America's managing director and CashPro product executive, whether such tools are prompting organizations to reconsider the functioning of their treasury teams. "Over the past two years, the pressure on treasury teams to accomplish more with fewer resources has only intensified," Sanctis informed me.

"We are not witnessing companies restructuring their teams; rather, they are seeking methods to liberate their personnel from monotonous tasks, thereby allowing them to dedicate more time to higher-value analysis and decision-making." This observation aligns with comments made by numerous CFOs I have spoken with. The deployment of AI tools and training enables finance and accounting professionals to concentrate on more impactful endeavors.

Sanctis stated that this transition is compelling treasury staff to cultivate skills that intersect finance, technology, and data, while corporations simultaneously focus on enhancing straight-through processing and cost management. A recent Deloitte report on treasury trends corroborates this shift. The firm asserts that agentic AI is transitioning "beyond pilots" to manage entire workflows, encompassing cash flow forecasting, risk analysis, and fraud detection, directly integrated into payment systems, rather than merely supplementing individual tasks.

Deloitte positions 2026 as a turning point characterized by speed, control, and resilience, as real-time payments and AI-driven automation transform the manner in which treasury functions are conducted. This concurs with insights from CashPro's advisory clients. Treasury director at Allegis Group, Laura Fox, highlighted that the value of this tool extends beyond accumulating more data; it lies in swiftly comprehending the data to take prompt action.

For CFOs, the critical inquiry to pose to their respective teams is not whether AI will permeate treasury operations, as it already has; rather, it is whether their personnel are being trained swiftly enough to effectively utilize these advancements. Sheryl Estrada, Sheryl.Estrada@fortune.com This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.