Acumatica Summit: AI Gets Practical, Financial Automation Gets Real

SEATTLE, WA – January 26, 2026 – Cloud ERP provider Acumatica kicked off its annual Summit in Seattle this week, signaling a strategic pivot from the theoretical promise of artificial intelligence to its practical, daily application for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). In front of more than 3,000 attendees, the company unveiled a series of major announcements, including the acquisition of fintech firm CoreChain and a new strategic partnership with AvidXchange, underscoring a determined push to build an end-to-end financial operations engine directly within its platform.

The keynote address, led by CEO John Case, set a clear tone: the future of business technology is no longer a distant concept. “We’re living in an incredibly exciting age of AI, with endless possibilities—and impact that organizations are experiencing today,” Case stated. “We see it with customers who are combining new AI capabilities with human ingenuity to enhance performance and empower people to do their best work.” The message resonated throughout the opening day, emphasizing tangible results over technological hype.

Beyond the Hype: Making AI Accessible

Acumatica's core strategy revolves around demystifying AI and embedding it directly into the everyday workflows of its users. Rather than offering standalone AI modules that require complex integration, the company is focused on practical adoption that enhances existing processes without disruption. The centerpiece of this initiative is the newly announced AI Studio, a low-code platform designed to empower business users—not just developers—to design and deploy their own custom AI workflows.

This tool allows users to manage prompts, automate data updates, and create intelligent processes with built-in safeguards for sensitive information. For example, a service manager could use AI Studio to automatically generate detailed case closure notes based on activity logs, or a marketing team could create compelling website descriptions for new inventory items with a single click. These capabilities are complemented by a suite of other features, including intelligent advisors that use machine learning to detect financial anomalies and predict manufacturing demand, and interactive assistants that respond to natural language commands.

This approach marks a significant differentiator in the crowded mid-market ERP space. While competitors also offer AI, Acumatica’s focus on a low-code, user-driven framework aims to democratize automation. It shifts the power to create from specialized IT departments to the functional experts who understand the business needs best, a critical advantage for SMBs with limited technical resources. By ensuring customers retain full control over their data with a privacy-by-design model, Acumatica is also addressing a key barrier to AI adoption: trust and security.

Building a Financial Operations Powerhouse

Beyond the advancements in AI, Acumatica made its strategic ambitions in the financial technology space clear. The company announced the acquisition of CoreChain, a B2B payments network specializing in digital payment automation and supply chain finance. CoreChain’s technology simplifies vendor payments through virtual cards and electronic transfers, helping to reduce fraud and eliminate paper checks. Its network also provides working capital solutions, allowing both buyers and suppliers to optimize cash flow by accelerating invoice payments.

This acquisition was immediately followed by the announcement of a new strategic partnership and deep integration with AvidXchange, a leader in accounts payable (AP) automation. The partnership will connect Acumatica’s ERP directly to AvidXchange’s network of over 1.3 million suppliers, creating a seamless, embedded payment experience expected to launch later this year. This integration promises to dramatically reduce the manual workload for finance teams, improve payment visibility, and provide greater control over the entire purchase-to-pay lifecycle.

Together, these moves signal a deliberate strategy to build a comprehensive, embedded finance ecosystem. By acquiring CoreChain and partnering with AvidXchange, Acumatica is consolidating critical AP and accounts receivable (AR) functions within its core platform. This reduces customer reliance on disconnected third-party tools, minimizes integration friction, and creates a more cohesive, powerful solution for managing a company’s complete financial operations.

From Hurricane Protection to Community Care

To ground its technological vision in reality, Acumatica put its customers front and center. The company honored two organizations whose success stories exemplify the real-world impact of modern ERP systems.

Storm Smart, one of Florida's largest providers of hurricane protection solutions, was named Acumatica Customer of the Year. The company has experienced explosive growth, doubling its revenue and expanding from two to seven branches in just five years. This rapid scaling was untenable on its legacy homegrown system. By implementing Acumatica, Storm Smart gained the cross-location visibility, automation, and scalability needed to manage its complex operations efficiently while continuing to deliver high-quality service.

Receiving the Acumatica Impact Customer of the Year award was PSI Family Services, a nonprofit providing mental health services in the Washington, DC, and Maryland communities. As the organization grew to serve nearly a thousand individuals, its legacy software could no longer handle the complexity of managing thousands of insurance claims and integrating electronic health records (EHRs). The move to Acumatica Cloud ERP provided the security, flexibility, and visibility necessary to streamline administrative tasks, enabling its staff to focus less on paperwork and more on their core mission of delivering high-quality care.

“Storm Smart and PSI Family Services are fitting and inspirational examples of what’s possible when innovative organizations pair modern technology with strong leadership and a clear vision,” Case added. “Their success reflects what our Community is all about: practical innovation that delivers impact today.”

These stories highlight the adaptability of a cloud-native platform to serve vastly different business models—from a high-growth commercial enterprise to a community-focused nonprofit—and achieve measurable results. As Acumatica Summit 2026 continues, the industry will be watching closely as additional product announcements, customer stories, and insights are shared throughout the week.