Xerocon London 2026: The Agentic Era Has Arrived for Small Business Finance

Being on stage at Xerocon London and sharing what we’ve been building with our accountant and  bookkeeper community is always a highlight in my role as Chief Product and Technology Officer. 

This year feels different though. There’s more momentum as our vision for AI innovation is no longer just a concept for our five million customers: it’s here now as we define the agentic era for small business finance. 

From using the power of our agentic platform JAX  to automatically reconcile your books and chase invoices, to agents you can build yourself without writing a line of code – every announcement at Xerocon London is about giving you more time to focus on the work that actually matters. If you missed the opening showcase, read on for all the details.

Cleaner books, less manual effort

Bookkeeping accuracy starts with data quality, and we’ve built a complete end-to-end workflow to get there. JAX, your AI finance partner, is powering a new generation of tools that reduce manual effort and keep books clean:

• Xero Partner Hub is evolving to bring live book health, work status, and month-end readiness into a single view [available from October], connected directly to tax and advisory, so practices can manage their entire portfolio’s books-to-tax compliance workflow in one place. 
• With Smart Document Capture [available now], JAX reads source documents and automatically extracts relevant data directly into Xero. Coming soon: bank statement extraction, auto-created transactions and VAT checking, with auto-fetch on the roadmap to proactively collect documents rather than waiting for manual uploads. 
• Powered by JAX, Auto Bank Reconciliation automates one of the most time-consuming tasks in bookkeeping by matching transactions to bank feeds in real-time. We’re building on this capability by automating reconciliation across complex cases, like splitting a single payment across sales and fees. [Coming soon]
• [Available from October] And coming soon: document chasing in Xero Partner Hub. JAX will automatically identify transactions missing a receipt, removing the need to manually search for what’s missing. 

We’re also expanding compliance capabilities in the UK, with Corporation Tax coming to the platform later this year. Because Xero’s compliance engines run on live, transaction-level data, teams get fewer errors, faster reviews and complete traceability from receipt to return, all handled by Xero.

AI-powered workflows, wherever you work

AI should meet people in their existing workflows, not force them to change how they work. We’re took a deeper look at new native capabilities and  third-party integrations are making that a reality:

• [Available in early access now] XeroForce is our natural language custom AI agent builder powered by Xero OS. Without writing a single line of code, accountants and small businesses can build custom AI agents that connect Xero to the third-party tools they already use. General availability coming later this year. 
• [Available now] Anthropic’s Claude and Microsoft 365 Copilot integrations allow customers to securely access and use their live Xero financial data directly from the tools that they’re already working in.  More Microsoft 365 features are coming soon. 

Scaling a business shouldn’t mean outgrowing the tools that got you there. This is why we’re launching Xero Ultra, bringing enterprise-grade financial control and reporting to the platform finance teams and their advisors already know and trust, without the cost, disruption, or implementation lift that enterprise software typically demands.

Helping businesses get paid and stay cash flow positive

Cash flow is the lifeblood of any small business, and healthy cash flow starts with getting paid. New JAX innovations announced today will make a real difference in helping customers end more months cash flow positive. 

• [Coming soon] Payment Follow Ups, powered by JAX will analyze each customer’s unique payment history and automatically execute  tailored collection plans. It will adapt its approach – whether consolidating invoices, sending timed nudges or switching to SMS – based on payment behaviour in order to help businesses get paid faster.
• [Beta] Bill Protection is another feature we’re launching. JAX automatically inspects every bill before payment, flagging any unusual amounts, altered bank details or unfamiliar suppliers that manual review might miss.
• [Beta] And with Cash Flow Actions JAX proactively builds preventative plans to protect payroll, delay non-critical bills and bridge cash gaps. Because everything lives on the same ledger, businesses can review, adjust and execute these plans without leaving Xero.

This is the agentic era in practice: AI that takes initiative, adapts to context and executes, with full human oversight at every step.

Building toward a smarter future for small business

Everything we’ve announced  at Xerocon London sits within Xero OS, our AI-native operating system that brings financial control and clarity into one unified platform.

The promise of Accountable Intelligence is a future where the administrative burden of running a business is handled – reliably, accurately, at scale and with human judgement – so that our partner community accountants can focus on being trusted advisors and small businesses can focus on growth. 

Be sure to follow the excitement of all the action from Xerocon London on our social channels, and get ready for Xerocon Denver next month!