Startup Develops AI That Could Replace Human Accountants

The days of flesh-and-blood accountants could be numbered, thanks to artificial intelligence.

A German technology startup called Smacc has secured $3.8 million in Series A funding to help develop and refine its automated financing systems, according to CrunchBase.

“We are a young and passionate team with the objective to make financial management as simple and seamless as possible for small and medium-sized companies,” the company wrote on its website.

The startup, founded by Uli Erxleben, Janosch Novak and Stefan Korsch, specializes in building cloud-based platforms that digitize and automate all manners of accounting and financial processes, TechCrunch reports.

The founding trio was inspired to build an accounting AI after a series of trouble with accounting software in their own startups, Ubergizmo reports.

Smacc differs from other cloud-based accounting software in that it uses AI to automate processes that would normally require manual data input, according to The Washington Times.

The company’s AI works by converting receipts into a machine-readable format. It then encrypts the data and allocates it into an account. The AI checks and verifies 64 different data points, and has the ability to track sales, costs, invoices and liquidity.

The software is also self-learning, allowing it to become better at its job over time. For clients using Smacc’s services, the AI could learn to do a customer’s accounting seamlessly, the company said.

Smacc says its services are unique because of this level of automation. But only time will tell if this tech can actually threaten the jobs of human accountants.