"A baker is also a tech chief because he manages a website. He is a logistics expert, marketing head, shop operator, salesperson, and purchaser all rolled into one. That simply isn't sustainable," says Christian Steiger—and he intends to change that.
Artificial intelligence is designed to relieve small business owners—like the baker—of as much organizational burden as possible: "I see few areas where AI cannot help. To stick with the example, it won't bake the bread rolls. But everything surrounding that—marketing, brand strategy, Google optimization, the website, the online shop, product descriptions—there will be few limits for AI there," Steiger predicts.
Lexware has therefore set out to make entrepreneurship simple. "AI now enables us to do far more than just automate tax or accounting tasks," says Steiger.
Steiger, a computer science graduate who developed the cloud solution Lexware Office as an intrapreneur within the Haufe Group and has served as Managing Director of the Freiburg-based Haufe-Lexware since mid-2019, calls his concept the "Lena Principle." The name comes from a mentor Steiger had early in his career. The idea is for every self-employed person to have such an experienced guide at their side in the future—only in the form of artificial intelligence. With around 600,000 customers, approximately 500 employees, and revenue of about 200 million euros, the Freiburg-based Haufe-Lexware is one of the largest providers of business software for small enterprises in the German market.
For the AI "co-CEO" to work, it needs information from the business. "Let’s stick with the example of a baker who wants to raise their regional profile—say, via Instagram. That requires five components: first, the goal—increasing regional awareness. Second, the framework—what the AI is allowed to do (or not) and which topics it should cover. Third, the tone—how I speak to my customers. Fourth, escalation protocols—when the AI should stop acting autonomously and ask for input. And fifth, oversight, because ultimately, it’s about trust," Steiger says, describing the model.
The result is the "Insta-Poster," currently being tested by 400 customers. The baker provides the AI with a goal, the target audience, and the products to be promoted. "From this, two content streams are generated, backed by a specific strategy. For instance, one stream might focus on heritage—how a bread roll is made—while another covers finished products and current trends. These streams are populated with ready-made Instagram posts, scheduled, and published at the right time."
Marketing is intended to be just the starting point. Does the baker have the right logistics partner? Are they sourcing organic flour from the right supplier at a good price? To answer these questions, internal company data must be contextualized against market data—information the AI researches automatically. Here, Lexware aims to leverage its accounting roots to detect anomalies before they become apparent.
"Heads up: you’re running low on liquidity—would you like to take out a loan?" Steiger cites this as an example of an AI-generated insight. Lexware knows the entrepreneur's current standing and outstanding invoices, allowing it to offer tailored interest rates. "Essentially, this is a goldmine we can make accessible to entrepreneurs for the first time. I’d go so far as to say that business management itself will change. The way I shape and run my company once I have the time to focus on my true passion—that will open up a whole new dimension," Steiger hopes. For the system to work, Lexware collaborates with banks and an ecosystem of over 150 curated partners in fields such as e-commerce and time tracking. "These integrations are already up and running. The exciting part is that, for the first time, they are becoming useful not just for automation, but for a new style of business management."
The concept of transforming accounting software into an agentic companion for business management is currently a major topic across the entire industry. Xero, a British-Australian competitor to Lexware, openly markets its agent "Jax" as an "AI CFO"; US provider Intuit rolled out a suite of seven specialized AI agents for accounting, payments, customer communication, and tax in the summer of 2025; and even Mastercard introduced a virtual CFO for small businesses in March.
AI is also shaking up the German market: French fintech Pennylane—valued at €4.25 billion following a €175 million funding round—launched in Germany in November 2025 with the aim of challenging Datev and Lexware in their core business.
Steiger’s focus on the "Co-CFO" role is a deliberate response to the reality of the target audience: in micro-enterprises, the owner, managing director, and financial chief are usually the same person.
For Steiger, automating accounting is a necessary prerequisite for the AI "Co-CEO." However, he believes this issue will soon be resolved. Well over 80 percent of accounting processes are already automated today. "Our goal is to get close to 100 percent. Yes, there are always exceptions. But for 100 percent of standard cases—we will get there within the next year or two; I am firmly convinced of that."
That will make it possible to look ahead. "All current systems essentially look backward. Tax reporting makes me look back two or three years. Banks look at a single account in real-time, at best. Accounting looks back a quarter or half a year. But entrepreneurs want to shape the future, not know what happened in the past. And that is exactly where we come in."
Whether Steiger’s bet pays off, however, depends less on the technology than on the target audience's willingness to adopt it. According to a KfW study from February, only 19 percent of German micro-enterprises with fewer than five employees currently use artificial intelligence—significantly fewer than larger SMEs, 36 percent of which employ AI.
At the same time, the share of all SME AI users has nearly doubled within a year, according to the industry association Bitkom. Steiger argues that small business owners, in particular, often have better conditions for adopting new tools than large corporations, thanks to the absence of legacy systems and shorter decision-making paths.
He acknowledges the objection that AI still frequently makes mistakes with figures and that tax authorities do not tolerate errors. Yet, for him, this does nothing to alter the ambition of transforming the software from a backward-looking accounting tool into a forward-looking "Co-CEO."” [1]
1. Die KI, die dem Chef die lästige Arbeit abnimmt: Viele Kleinunternehmer müssen Technik, Buchhaltung, Marketing und Einkauf in Personalunion erledigen. Das Unternehmen Lexware will Abhilfe schaffen. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Frankfurt. 27 Apr 2026: 19. HOLGER SCHMIDT
1. Die KI, die dem Chef die lästige Arbeit abnimmt: Viele Kleinunternehmer müssen Technik, Buchhaltung, Marketing und Einkauf in Personalunion erledigen. Das Unternehmen Lexware will Abhilfe schaffen. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Frankfurt. 27 Apr 2026: 19. HOLGER SCHMIDT
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