Global content and technology company Thomson Reuters Corp. said today it acquired Materia, a U.S.-based startup that develops specialized artificial intelligence agents for accounting professionals, for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2022, Materia provides AI assistants that help accountants automate knowledge work for tax, auditing and research to improve their effectiveness when working with clients. The company does so by using a new AI methodology called “agentic workflows,” where AI does more than provide summaries and answers, but can also perform actions without human intervention for generating reports, emails, analysis and more.

“Materia is defining the future for how agentic AI can enhance the accounting profession,” said Materia Chief Executive Kevin Merlini. “Our vision is to eliminate low-value, tedious tasks, and in doing so, both increase quality and free up accounting teams to focus on higher-value advisory work for their clients.”

Thomson Reuters Ventures, an early investor in Materia, assisted in building proof-of-concepts for Materia’s AI assistant. The investor participated in Materia’s $6.3 million funding round in June this year, which was led by Spark Capital.

The two companies did not reveal the details of the acquisition.

Acquiring Materia follows a larger bet on generative AI for Thomson Reuters as the company continues to follow a trend of building up its background in the technology. Thomson Reuters announced last November that it plans to invest more than $100 million in AI and build it into its information services. Following up on this plan, Thomson Reuters has used its vast data trove to build AI products, train its workforce and bolster its use of AI in the industry.

Thomson Reuters has launched multiple AI products to assist lawyers including an AI-powered chatbot on practical law, an in-document law finder and a legal AI assistant called CoCouncil Core capable of document review, drafting and analysis.

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

Numerous law firms, big and small, have begun to embrace AI assistants as part of 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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