Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the world of work in profound ways, creating new opportunities and challenges for professionals across various sectors. At Thomson Reuters, we are dedicated to exploring how this emerging technology affects the people and organizations we serve, as well as the wider society — both now and in the future.
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The new Future of Professionals report examines how the combination of AI and human expertise will shape the roles, skills, and work of tax professionals in the future. The report is based on a survey of 1,200 professionals from North and South America and the UK.
Key findings for tax professionals
The current economic climate is putting added pressure on businesses, especially regarding the tight labor market and rising cost of living. With ongoing pressure to do more work for less cost, it is unsurprising to find in our survey that improving internal efficiency is one of the highest priorities for tax professionals within firms and in-house departments alike. Some tax professionals within firms worry that they will not be able to achieve the price reductions that clients hope AI’s efficiency savings will bring. In the near term at least, prices may actually need to go up with rising interest rates – leaving some professionals anticipating a decline in customer retention for personal tax services. As a result, although they can see the potential for AI to bring many benefits to their profession, tax professionals remain unsure as to whether it will ultimately result in increased profitability for firms, reduced costs for in-house departments, or both.
Tax professionals recognize that AI can enable growth opportunities for firms and corporate departments by automating routine tasks, enhancing data analysis, and improving decision-making. By freeing up tax professionals from mundane and repetitive work, AI can allow them to focus on more value-added and creative tasks, such as providing strategic advice, developing new services, and building relationships with clients and stakeholders. AI can also help leverage data more effectively, supplying insights, predictions, and recommendations that can help them find new opportunities and solve problems. By using AI to augment capabilities, tax professionals can increase their productivity, efficiency, and quality of work, and ultimately deliver more value to their clients and organizations.
AI and internal efficiencies
The application of AI can also bring about internal productivity improvements for firms and corporate departments by streamlining workflows, enhancing collaboration, and reducing costs. By automating routine tasks, AI can reduce the need for manual intervention, human supervision, and quality control, and thus save time, resources, and money. It can streamline workflows by integrating different systems, platforms, and tools, and by providing a unified and consistent interface for tax professionals to access and manage data, documents, and tasks. By using this technology to improve internal operations, tax professionals can achieve more with less, and create a more agile and responsive work environment.
AI and role evolution
AI will significantly impact how roles may evolve as it becomes a fixture in the workplace. As AI takes over more routine and predictable tasks, professionals may need to develop new skills and competencies, such as critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, and digital literacy, to complement and collaborate. Tax professionals may need to adapt to new ways of working, such as working remotely, working across disciplines, and working with diverse and distributed teams. By using AI to enhance their roles, tax professionals can create more meaningful and fulfilling work, and contribute to the social and economic well-being of society.
AI and the tax profession
The tax profession is one of the fields that is likely to undergo significant changes as AI becomes more prevalent and sophisticated. It can help tax professionals automate and streamline tax compliance, reporting, and planning, by supplying faster and more accurate calculations, classifications, and filings. AI can also help tax professionals provide more value-added and strategic services, such as tax advisory, tax optimization, and tax risk management, by supplying deeper and broader insights, scenarios, and recommendations. AI can also help tax professionals cope with the increasing complexity and volatility of the tax environment, by providing more up-to-date and relevant information, guidance, and alerts. Tax professionals can create a more technology-centered and customer-focused approach and achieve greater work-life balance.
Thomson Reuters is committed to understanding how this changing landscape truly impacts the professionals it serves, the industry, and society at large — today and tomorrow. AI can be a positive force for tax and accounting professionals, when used in a responsible and ethical way.
To learn more about how AI can help you prepare for the future of work with confidence and optimism, read the full report below.
