Xero launches XeroForce AI agent builder for finance
Thu, 14th May 2026 (Today)
Xero has launched XeroForce, an AI agent builder for small business and accounting workflows. The product is initially available in alpha to invite-only customers.
Users can create custom agents through natural language prompts and run them across Xero and third-party applications used by accountants and small businesses. Xero presents the system as a way to automate manual financial tasks without coding skills.
XeroForce is aimed at routine finance and compliance processes, including month-end close, reporting, tax document organisation, purchase order validation and payrun approval. It is also designed to support workflows that remain active while waiting for triggers such as email replies or filing deadlines, allowing tasks to continue in the background over days or weeks.
The launch adds to a broader push by software providers to place AI agents at the centre of back-office operations. For accounting firms, the pitch is that workflows can be set once and then applied across multiple clients, rather than handled case by case through individual interactions.
Every action taken by an agent is logged and traceable, which Xero says is important for compliance and client trust. That focus reflects wider concerns in the accounting sector about auditability and oversight as AI tools move from drafting and analysis into process execution.
Diya Jolly, Xero's chief product and technology officer, described the product as tailored to finance work carried out by small businesses and their advisers.
"XeroForce is uniquely built for end-to-end financial operations, combining decades of Xero's domain context, verified data, and AI innovation to help small businesses and accountants deploy agents that can automate financial workflows and deliver the visibility critical for compliance, all without code writing expertise," Jolly said.
She added that Xero expects customers to adapt the tool to their own ways of working.
"We're excited to see what our customers create with XeroForce and to support them in unlocking the benefits of agentic workflows, so they can focus more on the strategic work only they can do," Jolly said.
Practise workflows
XeroForce can connect apps, actions, rules and schedules into processes tailored to a firm, a single client or a specific industry. That may appeal to accountants and bookkeepers managing large books of business, where repetitive administration across many clients remains a significant cost.
At Nortons Business Advisors, the product is being viewed through the lens of practice efficiency. Ben Kurtz, a senior accountant at the firm, said the prospect of linking Xero with other everyday software tools was a key attraction.
"What excites us about XeroForce is the potential. Being able to automate workflows across Xero and the apps we use everyday, tailored to how our practice works, is a game changer," Kurtz said.
He said the expected benefit would be less time spent on repetitive processing.
"We can see how this will free up the time we currently spend on manual processing to let us focus on what matters most: advising our clients," Kurtz said.
AI stack
XeroForce runs on what Xero calls Xero OS, an AI-focused financial operating system for small businesses and accountants. The same system also underpins JAX, Xero's financial AI assistant, as the company expands its use of generative AI across its software.
The move comes as accounting software groups try to distinguish their AI offerings from more general-purpose tools by emphasising domain-specific logic, verified financial data and controls over how automated actions are carried out. In practice, suppliers are increasingly arguing that AI in finance needs to be embedded in accounting systems rather than layered on top as a generic chatbot.
For Xero, the release marks a step beyond AI features that generate insights or text-based assistance and towards systems that can execute multi-step operational workflows. Adoption among accountants and small businesses is likely to depend on reliability, transparency and the level of human supervision built into each process.
Xero says XeroForce is designed so accountants and small businesses can deploy agents without writing code or crafting complex prompts.