Can AI Help You Do Your Taxes?

Leaders of AI companies often argue that AI products will handle mundane tasks, freeing people up to be more productive and creative. And there are few tasks more mundane than taxes. An individual American taxpayer spends roughly 13 hours and 240 out-of-pocket costs just to prepare and file one annual tax return, according to one 2022 study--an estimated 1.15 billion hours collectively spent on tax preparation. So it's not surprising that tax companies have begun rolling out AI-powered tools in an effort to make filing easier. AI-powered tax software, these companies argue, can automate repetitive tasks like data entry, cull through patterns in order to find relevant tax breaks, identify potential compliance risks, and answer tricky questions that filers may have.