Thompson Reuters Corp., global content and technology company. said Today he acquired Materiala startup based in the United States which develops agents specialized in artificial intelligence for accounting professionals.

Founded in 2022, Materia provides AI assistants that help accountants automate tax, audit and research knowledge work to improve their efficiency when working with clients. The company does it using a new AI methodology called “agent workflow,» where the AI does more than provide summaries and answers, but can also perform actions without human intervention to generate reports, emails, analytics and much more.

“Materia defines the future of how agentic AI can improve the accounting profession,» said Kevin Merlini, general manager of Materia. “Our vision is to eliminate tedious, low-value tasks and, in doing so, increase quality, and free up accounting teams so they can focus on higher value-added advisory work for their clients.”

Thomson Reuters Ventures, an early investor in Materia, helped develop proofs of concept for Material AI assistant. The investor participated in Material Funding round of $6.3 million in June this year, led by Spark Capital.

The two companies did not reveal details of the acquisition.

The acquisition of Materia follows a bigger bet on generative AI for Reuters, as the company continues a trend of bolstering its experience in the technology. Reuters announced last November its intention to invest more than 100 million dollars in AI and integrate it into its information services. As an extension of this plan, Reuters has used its vast trove of data to create AI products, train its workforce and build its capabilities. use of AI in industry.

Reuters launched several AI products to assist lawyers including an AI-powered chatbot on practical law, a law finder integrated into documents And an AI legal assistant called CoCouncil Heart able to review, draft and analyze documents.

“OOur vision is to provide every professional we serve with a Gen AI assistant. Materia will further accelerate this vision for our tax, audit and accounting clients,» said David Wong, chief product officer at Thomson Reuters. “Once fully integrated, Materia will transform work and unify the entire customer experience with applications spanning our entire tax, audit and accounting portfolio..”

Many law firms, large and small, have begun to adopt AI assistants as part of their work to reduce the tedious parts of knowledge work in research and document production. The big four accounting firms have also invested heavily in AI for lawyers and accountants, including PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP And KPMG.

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