This is a live article on the problem spaces, startups and projects in generative AI for finance.
Problem space & startups
| Domain | Jobs to be done | Selected AI companies |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting | ||
| Accounting | I need to keep my books | Rillet, Campfire, Truewind |
| Accounts payable | I need to manage procurement I need to manage corporate and employee expenses |
Airwallex, Ramp, Brex, Appzen |
| Accounts receivable | I need to bill my customers and collect money from them | Airwallex, Stripe, Chargebee |
| Close & consolidation | I need to close my books on time I need to see a combined view of the entities in my business I need to create and track intercompany movements easily |
BlackLine, FloQast |
| Financial reporting | I need to produce periodic reports for my business | Workiva |
| Financial Planning & Analysis | ||
| Planning & budgeting | I need insights about my business I need to develop a financial plan for my business |
Pigment, Runway, Summation |
| Financial modeling & analysis | I need to build and maintain complex financial models I need to create insightful slides I need to write insightful reports |
Rogo, Julius, Manus |
| Office productivity tools | I need a tool for financial analysis and slides | Bricks |
| Corporate Development | ||
| M&A | I need to source and screen potential acquisition targets I need to conduct due diligence effectively |
|
| Research | I need to get insights about industries and companies I need to benchmark my business against my peers to gain insights |
Claude Financial Services |
| Tax | ||
| Tax compliance | I need to automate tax compliance and filing processes | Avalara, TaxJar, Kintsugi |
| Transfer pricing | I need to document and analyze transfer pricing | |
| Treasury | ||
| Treasury management | I need to forecast cash flows and manage my cash, debt and capital | Kyriba, Trovata, Nilus, Panax |
| Audit | ||
| External audit | I need to plan and perform financial audits efficiently | Trullion |
| Internal audit | I need to plan and perform internal audits efficiently | |
Resources
- FinRobot - An open-source AI agent platform for financial analysis using LLMs
- LLMs in Finance - A curated collection of resources, papers, and tools for applying large language models in finance
- AI Financial Agent - A Python-based AI agent for automated financial analysis and portfolio management
Observations
-
User interface revolution: I haven't seen the user interface revolution in accounting and spend software that we've seen in software engineering (Lovable, Cursor). Many modern accounting and FP&A startups are still module driven rather than AI native.
-
Adoption follows complexity: Adoption should start with simple operations (AP/AR automation) and move to complex analysis (strategic finance) as better models are released.
-
Suite advantage: Microsoft and Google have a structural advantage in financial tasks because the AI agent can integrate seamlessly with existing workflows in Excel / Sheets, Word / Docs and Powerpoint / Slides that finance teams already use daily.
What generative AI tools is your finance team using? I'd love to hear about your experiences and learn about companies I might have missed in this overview.