Artificial intelligence could boost the development of receivables financing. This well-established financing technique allows companies to sell their invoices to a specialised provider (a “factor”) in exchange for immediate funding. Although factoring is generally more flexible and faster than traditional bank lending, granting a financing facility still requires a series of compliance checks, financial security assessments, and document verification processes that can take time.
However, companies’ objective remains unchanged: to access liquidity quickly, either to solve working capital pressures or to fund growth. The question is therefore whether AI could accelerate these processes while also improving fraud detection.
With its ability to process large volumes of data, AI could significantly enhance scoring capabilities to assess customer creditworthiness.
Factors are generally banking subsidiaries that purchase receivables and manage collections. This specialised financing model relies primarily on the credit strength of debtors. The more reliable they are – such as large corporates or public-sector entities – the more likely the factor is to purchase the receivables. The main risk remains acquiring fraudulent invoices or receivables that will never be paid. This is where AI could play a key role in accelerating processes. “AI could help factors make systematic checks, whereas today, due to volumes, they rely on sampling and statistical testing,” explains Maxime Bertin, Managing Director at Fibus, a brokerage firm.
Improving risk assessment
With its ability to process large datasets, AI could also significantly enhance scoring capabilities to assess customer strength and reliability. Factors already have access to a large amount of data enabling them to assess whether a customer – or their debtor – is a good payer. “AI will enable scenario-building based on customers’ invoicing and payment behaviours, helping to better anticipate cash collections,” adds Maxime Bertin.
Some fintechs and service providers have already entered this space. For accountants and SMEs, Cegid offers AI-based treasury management solutions and 48-hour cash advances. “AI allows us to assess, within seconds, the risk of default and fraud associated with each invoice. The key challenge is to assign the correct risk level instantly so that decisions can be made very quickly. This is exactly what AI is capable of doing,” says Maïté Leteno, VP Product Marketing Manager Small Business at Cegid.
The objective is to build a predictive cash management view by analysing recurring payments, financial ratios, balance sheets, and even payroll data. By relying on real market data, AI expands the ability to take risk. “We use a scoring model based on observed payment defaults, segmented by company types, to produce reliable forecasts. This allows us to offer higher acceptance rates for financing in low-risk sectors,” adds Marek Zanguropol, financial services and treasury expert at Cegid.
Growth of invoice-level factoring
AI is therefore enabling “invoice-level” financing, rather than financing entire portfolios. This trend is already emerging among SMEs, but could also develop in the large corporate segment. “Today, factors finance receivables portfolios rather than individual invoices. AI should allow much more granular analysis, invoice by invoice, whereas this is currently reserved for companies with low invoice volumes,” explains Maxime Bertin. In the future, an industrial company processing hundreds of thousands of invoices could potentially benefit from this model for part of its receivables.
“The limitation of AI is that it tends to complete missing data when it does not have it. Machine learning and algorithm-based models are currently more reliable.”
The collapse of certain fintechs that failed to properly implement AI shows that the technology is not infallible. The highly regulated and cautious factoring industry is currently testing and experimenting, but has not yet fully deployed AI in its operational processes.
“The challenge is to add AI that helps us save time in data collection, to feed analysts’ financial judgement. This is a long-term project requiring deep process integration. Our financial analysis relies on structured documentation and data, which is then analysed to support decision-making, which remains human-led,” explains Maha Sefrioui, Head of Customer Relations at Factofrance, responsible for AI at Crédit Mutuel’s factoring division executive committee.
AI is also being explored in collections functions to support back-office teams. Today, teams use scoring tools based on databases to prioritise customers for dunning. AI could further improve productivity.
More data for better forecasting
AI deployment is still at an early stage. The rollout of electronic invoicing – starting in September 2026 for large corporates and one year later for others – will reshape the market. By improving data accessibility, it will enhance working capital forecasting and improve financing decisions.
“Having data on invoices – when they are issued, when they are paid, and visibility over inflows and outflows – helps select the most appropriate financing solution,” explains Ludovic Sarda, founder of TRESO2, an approved electronic invoicing platform partnered with Bpifrance and Arkéa.
The first step remains extracting information from PDF invoices using OCR. On this point, generative AI shows its limitations. “The issue with AI is that it tends to complete missing data. This creates hallucination effects. For now, machine learning and algorithmic approaches remain more reliable.”
3 questions to Thibaut Robet, Managing Director of Fibus
Why has factoring become essential?
Factoring is a flexible short-term financing tool that offers two key advantages for companies. First, it supports growth – and today, 95% of factoring use cases relate to growth financing. It has become a stable component of corporate funding, scaling naturally with revenue. Second, it is a key contingency tool for finance departments, used to navigate periods of uncertainty or financial stress. Unlike other financing solutions such as traditional loans, factoring remains available even in difficult conditions.
What differentiates Fibus in this market?
Fibus is the largest advisory team dedicated to factoring in France and Europe. In 2024, our clients entrusted us with €45bn of receivables to finance. We operate across 40 countries, and more than 50% of our activity is international. Our clients include French corporates with overseas subsidiaries, as well as international groups with operations in France. We cover all three dimensions of receivables financing: structuring financing solutions, managing customer risk through credit insurance, and continuously optimising financing via our software tools. We are the only player in Europe offering this integrated model.
How does Fibus integrate AI into its digital offering?
Our ARI Trade platform manages all aspects of factoring, including credit risk. It automates invoice assignment and generates AI-enhanced reporting. The traditionally complex analysis of discrepancies is now immediate and reliable. With ARI, clients achieve on average a 15% increase in financing, while reducing management time by a factor of five. Our roadmap is built around two pillars: AI-driven analytics and decision support tools, and a user club that helps shape future developments.
Source: Le Nouvel Economiste