Melio, the New York-based accounts payable and receivable platform owned by Xero, launched an AI agent-powered B2B payment network on 17 June 2026. The system enables buyers to execute payments directly into supplier accounts receivable systems without requiring suppliers to register on a new portal or join a separate payment network.
According to the company, the network has processed more than 30,000 payments to date, recording over $100 million in annualised payment volume. Melio’s broader platform handles more than $30 billion in annual payment volume, with the company stating that a growing share of that volume is becoming eligible for agent-driven execution.
The launch is notable within B2B payments because it addresses a persistent structural barrier: the requirement that both payer and payee join a common network or platform before automated payment execution becomes possible. Melio’s model attempts to remove that requirement entirely on the supplier side.
What Melio’s Agentic Payment Network Does
Rather than routing transactions through a closed network requiring bilateral enrolment, Melio’s AI agents log into supplier billing and accounts receivable systems directly. The agents identify a supplier’s preferred payment method by drawing on the platform’s historical accounts payable data across tens of thousands of small businesses, execute the payment, and return structured remittance information automatically. Suppliers receive funds in the format their existing systems already expect, without altering their internal workflow.
Aharon Levine, Melio’s VP of payments strategy, described the shift in structural terms, noting that scaling a B2B payment network has historically required either building a proprietary rail or signing up suppliers individually. He said the agentic model removes the requirement for suppliers to join a network in order for that network to reach them, allowing buyers to execute payments with full auditability and reduced manual work while suppliers receive faster payments with remittance data already attached.
Key Factors Driving the Product’s Positioning
Supplier onboarding friction has long been cited as a principal reason paper cheques remain prevalent in US business payments. Melio’s release cites an estimate that roughly 40 percent of US B2B transactions still move by cheque, a figure broadly consistent with Federal Reserve and NACHA data on business payment composition.
Melio’s existing distribution partnerships — with Capital One, Shopify, and Fiserv — provide embedded access to a large base of US small businesses that would not typically procure a standalone accounts payable product independently. If agentic execution can be delivered through these channels at low incremental cost, the addressable customer base could extend meaningfully beyond Melio’s reported base of nearly 100,000 direct business customers.
Competitive and Market Context
The broader agentic AI payments sector is drawing activity from multiple directions. Established enterprise platforms such as SAP Concur and Coupa have automated portions of the accounts payable workflow for years, though their supplier networks generally still require bilateral onboarding. Newer entrants including Zip, Tipalti, and Ramp have reduced manual-entry burden for mid-market buyers, but the unilateral-execution architecture Melio describes — in which the paying agent acts without requiring counterparty setup — represents a distinct structural approach relative to these competitors.
Regulatory Considerations and Limitations
Agentic systems that authenticate into third-party financial platforms on a user’s behalf currently occupy an unsettled position under existing US open-banking frameworks. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Section 1033 rulemaking, finalised in late 2024, established data-access rights for consumer accounts, but does not yet comprehensively cover business accounts. Melio’s agents operate within business payments rather than the retail space addressed by that rulemaking, though as agentic credential use expands more broadly, regulators and financial institutions are likely to examine liability allocation questions, particularly in cases involving misdirected or fraudulent payments initiated by an automated agent.
Melio has not disclosed the accuracy rate of its supplier payment-method identification process, the error or failure rate on agent-executed transactions, or the liability terms applicable if an agent executes a payment incorrectly. These represent material open questions for accounting firms and financial officers evaluating adoption of the product.
Outlook
The commercial trajectory of agentic B2B payment execution will likely depend on factors not yet publicly disclosed, including error rates and liability frameworks, as well as the extent to which distribution partners integrate the capability into existing small-business banking and commerce channels. Regulatory clarity regarding agentic credential use in business payments remains an evolving area rather than a settled one.
Conclusion
Melio’s agentic B2B payment network represents a structural departure from bilateral-onboarding payment models, enabling payment execution without requiring supplier registration on a new platform. Undisclosed accuracy and liability data, alongside an unsettled regulatory environment for agentic credential use, remain open considerations ahead of wider adoption.
