Hear from Blue J’s CEO, Benjamin Alarie, and Accounting Voices founder, Rob Brown, as they discuss how AI is changing tax season as we know it. From busy season burnout to a whole new way of working, AI-powered tax research is helping tax practitioners get out of the grind that once defined this time of year.
For quick takeaways you can take with you, we’ve included a few highlights from their conversation below.
What Tax Season Looks Like for Firms Today
Tax season today can feel less like a sprint and more like a marathon. Firms are navigating cascading deadlines—March, April, June, September, October—creating a “multi-season” cycle that never fully lets up. Emotionally, each season in this cycle is marked by dread at the outset, irritability as deadlines stack up, and fatigue that lingers after the rush ends. When facing this ongoing pressure, maintaining quality while keeping pace has become increasingly difficult.
How AI Has Changed In The Last 18 Months
Over the last 18 months, AI has definitively shifted from an experiment to an essential—especially in tax research. But as its impact expands, AI isn’t replacing professional judgment. Rather, its biggest disruption comes from changing the way tax practitioners work, significantly shortening the time between messy client inputs and usable outputs. Already, this shift is reshaping how tax practitioners approach research, analysis, and decision-making within firms.
The Risks Of Doing Nothing Before Tax Season
While firms may hesitate to make changes to their tech stack ahead of tax season, sticking with the status quo carries real risk. These risks apply across the board, affecting talent, work, and clients. First, in terms of talent risks, betting that staff won’t burn out is a dangerous gamble, especially when senior talent leaving can quickly start to unravel capacity firmwide. Next, risks to work quality arise when backlogs force rushed judgments, more rework, and overly conservative positions that aren’t always in clients’ best interests. Lastly, client relationships are put at risk when overwhelmed teams experience communication breakdowns. Regardless of whether that breakdown started with the firm or the client, firms absorb the reputational damage.
How Tax Season Will Evolve
The future of tax season won’t be shaped by heroics or endless extensions that reinforce the “multi-season” cycle. Instead, firms are starting to make more deliberate choices—about which clients they serve and the technology they rely on to support them. When it comes to incorporating AI, firms are increasingly cutting through the hype by leaning on peer validation to guide decisions. By enabling more robust and efficient work, AI is setting the pace for what a more sustainable tax season can look like.
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