Here’s a tax season truth: the biggest bottleneck in most firms isn’t capacity or effort. It’s friction.
After more than two decades working with tax teams, I’ve seen the same pattern repeat every busy season. Junior staff spend hours digging through research databases. Seniors answer the same questions over and over again. Partners are pulled into research threads that should have been resolved much earlier in the process.
Meanwhile, deadlines don’t move — and the complexity of tax law keeps growing.
Today’s tax environment only amplifies those pressures. Firms are navigating evolving legislation, staffing shortages and rising client expectations all at the same time. Clients don’t just want returns filed correctly. They want timely answers and proactive advice.
The reality is that most firms simply don’t have more hours to give. What they need is a way to remove friction from the work itself. That’s where AI is starting to make a real difference.
But not all AI is created equal. Generic tools can help with basic questions, but they aren’t grounded in curated, authoritative tax content. When you’re dealing with real client work, you want domain-specific research tools that are built on trusted sources and designed for how professionals actually work.
Where tax research slows firms down
One of the biggest friction points in tax work is research.
Traditionally, answering a tax question means navigating multiple databases, reviewing lengthy statutes and regulations, and piecing together authoritative sources to build a defensible answer. Even experienced professionals can spend significant time getting to the right conclusion. For junior staff, the process can take even longer and often requires escalating the question to more senior team members.
Multiply that across dozens of questions during busy season and you start to see the real bottleneck. It’s not a lack of expertise. It’s the time required to locate and interpret the right information.
Domain-specific AI-powered tax research tools are beginning to streamline that process. Instead of manually searching through multiple sources, professionals can ask targeted questions and receive summarized responses backed by authoritative citations.
These tools surface relevant statutes, regulations, and commentary, and they can suggest follow-up questions to explore related issues. The goal isn’t to replace professional judgment but simply accelerate how quickly practitioners get the information they need.
How AI changes the workflow inside a firm
When firms introduce AI-assisted research into their workflow, the biggest shift isn’t just speed but how work moves through the team. What used to take an hour or more to research can sometimes be resolved in minutes.
Instead of spending time building answers from scratch, experienced professionals can focus on reviewing conclusions, identifying planning opportunities, and helping clients make better decisions.
And during tax season, that shift matters.
Faster research means quicker responses to client questions. It means less time navigating legacy research platforms and more time working through the actual tax implications.
Across the firm, those small efficiency gains start to compound.
Creating more room for advisory conversations
One of the most important outcomes of AI adoption isn’t just faster research. It’s the opportunity to reclaim your time, which always feels in short supply. Most firms want to expand into planning and advisory services. But when the team is buried in compliance work and research tasks, those conversations are often pushed to the side.
Technology can help change that.
When professionals spend less time searching for answers, they gain more time to help clients think through transactions, planning strategies and the broader tax implications of their decisions.
That’s where firms ultimately create the most value as trusted advisors, not just compliance providers.
Where your firm can start
For firms exploring AI adoption, tax research is often the most practical place to begin.
It’s a universal challenge across tax teams, and improvements here can deliver immediate value — especially during busy season.
Once teams become comfortable using AI tools for research, many firms begin expanding into other applications such as document analysis, workflow automation and client communication support.
The goal isn’t to replace professional expertise. It’s to help firms apply that expertise more efficiently.
The firms that move fastest will gain an edge
Tax season will always be demanding. But firms that learn how to remove friction from their workflows will have a significant advantage.
AI-assisted research is one of the clearest opportunities to do that today. When your team can get defensible answers faster, and with confidence, it changes how work flows across the entire firm.
If you’re interested in seeing how AI-powered tax research works in practice, solutions like Blue J — built specifically for tax professionals — highlight what makes purpose-built AI different. Unlike general tools like ChatGPT, Google or Perplexity, which pull from broad, open sources, tax-specific AI is grounded in curated, authoritative content such as IRS guidance, revenue rulings and expert analysis from trusted providers like Tax Notes.
That difference matters. When you’re working through real client scenarios, you need answers you can trace, validate, and stand behind. Tools like these offer a practical way to explore how purpose-built AI can support your team during tax season and help you move faster with confidence.
About the author
Brandon Allfrey, CPA, CGMA is the Senior Director of Tax
Transformation at CPA.com where he helps CPA firms modernize
tax compliance and expand advisory services by leading the
strategy and development of innovative tax technology solutions.
