Payment uncertainty is one of the many ripple effects of the Ukrainian invasion by Russia.
After two years of pandemic that brought many businesses to their knees, the Russian invasion of Ukraine brings a blow to the hope that economic recovery would begin shortly. Far from the growth it had been hoping for post-pandemic, Europe – and most of the Western world – is now in the midst of economic war, and facing its harsh consequences. Energy, fuel, commodities: prices are rising, in some cases to unprecedented levels.
This will directly impact the number of unpaid bills. And with that, the workload of the financial departments in charge of recovering them.
These unpaid bills are all the more worrying to the fuel and energy industries. Already before the invasion, they noticed a significant increase in outstanding debt and a drop in collection rate, with direct effects on cash flow and profitability. The skyrocketing prices of energy and fuel will be felt across all industries; few is exempt of seeing their monthly write-offs increase.
Because they need to protect themselves from default payment, the capacity for suppliers to predict their clients’ payment behaviors, and accordingly adapt their collection strategy, seems more necessary than ever. And, with the entire market so wound up, handling the client relationship in the right way will be crucial.
Software companies, powered by artificial intelligence, bring collection departments the tools to anticipate their clients’ payment behaviors, revealing the risk before it arises. By taking real-time contextualized data into account, AI sheds light as we navigate in a sensitive, unpredictable and volatile context.
