Almost one year ago exactly, Seema Amble and I went down the accounting rabbit hole. In the 12 months since, we've been lucky enough to speak with countless founders, practitioners and technologists in the space, and have concluded there are now 3 certainties in life: death, taxes and AI.
There were many signs pointing us towards accounting as fruitful grounds for AI exploration. Incumbents like PWC and Reuters were announcing multi-billion $ investments into the space. Dozens of companies were being started by sharp teams. Major publications were covering the trend. But ultimately, the most interesting "why now" turned out to be a demographic one: 75% of CPAs are set to retire in the next 10 years. Simultaneously, the profession is attracting fewer job entrants, with the number of U.S. students who complete accounting degrees falling dramatically.
Luckily, genAI has hit the scene, and is ready to help practitioners fill this gap. In the below piece, Seema and I discuss how AI can drive efficiency in the various jobs to be done throughout accounting, and map out the startups tackling these important problems. We also highlight several considerations for go-to-market that we hope can help founders navigate this competitive landscape with a number of different incentives at play.
Read our full analysis here below. And if you’re building in this space (or think we got something wrong!), we’d love to chat. You can reach us at [email protected] and [email protected].
(None of the above should be taken as investment advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more information)
