Will billing clerks be replaced by AI?
Updated
Billing clerks score 59 of 100 for AI exposure. AI can already do 41% of their task time. Another 40% gets faster with AI, and 19% still needs a person.
- 41% AI can do it
- 40% AI helps
- 19% Needs a person
High exposure
Higher than 89% of the 923 occupations we scored.
Task by task
We graded 28 tasks, listed here from most to least exposed. AI can do 11 of them today, speeds up 11 and leaves 6 to people.
| Task | AI exposure |
|---|---|
| Create billing documents, shipping labels, credit memorandums, or credit forms. Billing documents and credit memos are template driven outputs. | 78% AI can do it |
| Prepare itemized statements, bills, or invoices and record amounts due for items purchased or services rendered. Invoices generated from line item data with little manual work. | 75% AI can do it |
| Perform bookkeeping work, including posting data or keeping other records concerning costs of goods or services or the shipment of goods. Posting cost and shipment records is routine data entry. | 75% AI can do it |
| Post stop-payment notices to prevent payment of protested checks. Logging stop-payment requests is structured data entry. | 70% AI can do it |
| Keep records of invoices and support documents. Digital invoice and support filing is easily automated. | 70% AI can do it |
| Compile reports of cost factors, such as labor, production, storage, and equipment. Compiling cost data into reports is a strong AI task. | 70% AI can do it |
| Review documents, such as purchase orders, sales tickets, charge slips, or hospital records, to compute fees or charges due. Extracting fee data from documents is well suited to AI. | 70% AI can do it |
| Compute credit terms, discounts, shipment charges, or rates for goods or services to complete billing documents. Discount, terms, and shipping calculations follow set rules. | 70% AI can do it |
| Track accumulated hours and dollar amounts charged to each client job to calculate client fees for professional services, such as legal or accounting services. Timesheet aggregation and fee totals are structured calculations. | 65% AI can do it |
| Compare previously prepared bank statements with canceled checks and reconcile discrepancies. Reconciliation matching is rule based and largely software driven. | 65% AI can do it |
Show the other 18 tasks
| Task | AI exposure |
|---|---|
| Operate typing, adding, calculating, or billing machines. Calculating and billing is done by software now. | 60% AI can do it |
| Answer inquiries regarding rates, routing, or procedures. Rate, routing and procedure questions suit AI chat answers. | 60% AI helps |
| Verify accuracy of billing data and revise any errors. Software can flag billing errors; person confirms and revises. | 58% AI helps |
| Consult sources, such as rate books, manuals, or insurance company representatives, to determine specific charges or information such as rules, regulations, or government tax and tariff information. AI can search rate manuals; verifying current rules needs review. | 55% AI helps |
| Update manuals when rates, rules, or regulations are amended. AI can draft manual updates from new rule text. | 55% AI helps |
| Resolve discrepancies in accounting records. AI can trace mismatches; investigating ambiguous cases needs judgment. | 50% AI helps |
| Perform general administrative tasks, such as answering telephones, scheduling appointments, and ordering supplies or equipment. Phones and scheduling are partly physical, supplies ordering is digital. | 45% AI helps |
| Review compiled data on operating costs and revenues to set rates. Rate setting needs business judgment, though AI can summarize data. | 45% AI helps |
| Contact customers to obtain or relay account information. Routine account queries can be handled, complex calls need people. | 40% AI helps |
| Take orders for imprinted checks. Order intake is mostly form filling, with some customer contact. | 40% AI helps |
| Verify signatures and required information on checks. Signature comparison is partly visual and needs a person. | 35% AI helps |
| Return checks to customers or retrieve checks returned to customers in error, adjusting accounts and answering inquiries about errors as necessary. Physically returning checks needs staff, account fixes are digital. | 30% AI helps |
| Route statements for mailing or over-the-counter delivery to customers. Physically sorting and routing mail needs hands on staff. | 15% Needs a person |
| Encode and cancel checks, using bank machines. Check encoding and cancelling run on physical bank machines. | 15% Needs a person |
| Monitor equipment to ensure proper operation. Watching physical equipment needs someone on site. | 10% Needs a person |
| Weigh envelopes containing statements to determine correct postage and affix postage, using stamps or metering equipment. Weighing and stamping envelopes is physical work. | 10% Needs a person |
| Load machines with statements, cancelled checks, or envelopes to prepare statements for distribution to customers or stuff envelopes by hand. Loading machines and stuffing envelopes is physical handling. | 8% Needs a person |
| Fix minor problems, such as equipment jams, and notify repair personnel of major equipment problems. Clearing jams is physical repair work done on site. | 5% Needs a person |
How billing clerks compare
All occupations (923)
Office and administrative support (51)
Pay and outlook in the US
- Median pay
- $48,500 a year, May 2025
- People employed
- 404,060 in the US, May 2025
- Projected change in jobs
- -0.1% from 2024 to 2034
Skills to build
- Reconcile billing exceptions and disputes in SAP software
- Approve credit memos within set limits in QuickBooks
- Build cost reports with pivot tables in Microsoft Excel
- Check hospital charges against MEDITECH charge records
- Handle physical check batches and mail routing on site
Safer roles nearby
5 related occupations with lower scores.
Questions about billing clerks and AI
Will AI replace billing clerks?
Partly. About 5 in 10 of a billing clerk's working hours go to tasks AI can already do, mostly creating billing documents and preparing invoices. Checking exceptions, handling checks and mail, and answering customer disputes stay with people because they need judgement and hands on paper.
Which billing clerk tasks is AI taking over?
Creating billing documents and credit memos has the highest exposure score, 78, because the output follows fixed templates. Preparing itemized invoices, with a score of 75, follows the same pattern since line items already sit in the system. Posting cost and shipment records, also 75, is routine data entry.
Which billing clerk tasks stay with people?
Loading machines and stuffing envelopes, with an exposure score of 8, stays with staff because it needs hands on paper and equipment. Weighing envelopes for postage, at 10, and encoding checks on bank machines, at 15, also need a person physically present. Physical handling keeps these tasks with people.
How can billing clerks stay valuable as AI spreads?
Move toward the work left after AI takes the template tasks. Take on exception review of billing errors in SAP software, approve credit memos within set limits in QuickBooks, and build cost reports in Microsoft Excel pivot tables. Keep hands-on skills in check batch handling and mail routing, which scored 15 or below on exposure.
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