Memorandum of Cooperation with a Software Company in the Field of Artificial Intelligence in Accounting

The Rector of UNWE Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov and Konstantin Stoyanov, Manager of Teamlook Ltd., signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in implementing joint projects, exchange of information and holding joint events. The Memorandum is focused on the organization of participation of representatives of Teamlook Ltd. in presentations to students, lectures, expertise, consultations, statistical and other studies.

Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov explained that the UNWE has an active policy of communication with the business: "We communicate with the business in every way, by organizing academies, lectures, trainings, internships, meetings, career events. The aim is to teach students the practical issues. This Memorandum is in this direction because the specialists from a leading software company which works in the field of accounting will conduct trainings to the students. Students will know about the entry of artificial intelligence in the accounting profession and the incorporation of other cutting-edge technologies in the accounting profession", said Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov. "We continue to develop training companies and will think how to integrate them into the curricula", added the Rector.

Prof. Dr. Snezhana Basheva, Head of the Accounting and Analysis Department, explained that the idea for such cooperation was initiated by the students in their 4^th year who already work in companies that use artificial intelligence /AI/. This motivated her to look for a leading Bulgarian company in this field to get them know about to the specifics of automation in accounting. She found such a company on the Bulgarian market whose manager graduated from the UNWE, speciality Finance and has been involved in accounting and software for many years. Accounting is one of the professions that are affected by artificial intelligence and Teamlook Ltd. offers software solutions for management and automation of accounting activities.

Prof. Dr. Tsvetana Stoyanova, Vice-Rector for Institutional and Business Cooperation and Student Policies, Konstantin Stoyanov, Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov, Prof. Dr. Snezhana Basheva and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maria Markova from the Accounting and Analysis Department

The Manager of Teamlook Ltd. Konstantin Stoyanov has already been invited to deliver a master class to the 4^th year students of Automation and Digitalization of Accounting Activities which aroused great interest and desire to continue the initiative with other trainings which has led to the idea of signing a memorandum.

"We are the first Bulgarian university which incorporates the Artificial Intelligence /AI/ in the teaching in accounting. It helps to make the accounting profession even more attractive. For the moment we envisage the training to be implemented in Bachelor's degree but we have an idea to make an integrated specialized programme jointly with the Informatics Department and our Cybersecurity specialists. In 2016 we were the first to incorporate a separate discipline based on the technology of training companies in order to train our students in a practical aspect and now we are the first to show the possibilities of AI in the accounting profession", said Prof. Dr. Snezhana Basheva who is also the Coordinator of the agreement.

"Technologies have been developed for years but in the last year things have quickened, they have reached the consumer", said Konstantin Stoyanov who runs a software company. "Our main objective is to make the profession even more interesting for the younger generation because young people are used to have everything a click away. We have already held a master class with students from the Accounting and Analysis Department and the students have asked a lot of interesting questions and I believe they will be able to learn a lot of new things from us", said Konstantin Stoyanov.