When the “Bots” Are Actually People: Lessons from the Botkeeper Collapse

Feb 11

Botkeeper is shutting down. Let’s call this what it was. It was a fraud.

For years, Botkeeper marketed itself as an AI bookkeeping company. Automation. Bots. Machine learning. The future of accounting.

Dig Deeper

We exposed the deception at Botkeeper on The Accounting Podcast in 2019:

But behind the curtain?

Offshore labor. Accountants in the Philippines masquerading as bots.

It was “fake it till you make it” dressed up as artificial intelligence.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with offshore teams. Plenty of firms use them successfully and transparently.

The problem is calling labor AI.

The problem is raising money and selling investors and firms on the promise of automation that didn’t exist.

The plan was the classic "fake it 'till you make it" — sell the vision first, build the tech later.

Except the tech never really came.

And eventually, investors stopped believing the story.

Here’s the lesson for accounting firms:

You are fiduciaries. You demand evidence. You test controls. You verify.

You need to apply the same skepticism to your technology vendors.

If a company claims to be powered by AI, ask:

Firms that bought into the hype aren’t the villains here. They were trying to innovate. They were trying to solve real staffing problems.

The fault lies with Botkeeper's leadership and investors who chose marketing over substance.

AI is real. Automation is real. But so is vaporware.

The next wave of “AI bookkeeping” startups is already here.

This time, let’s not be dazzled by buzzwords.

Ask for proof. Ask how it works.