While it's well known that artificial intelligence and automation make compliance easier and reduce manual processes, what's less well understood is how to harness the technology to gain a richer experience that sparks innovation in business processes. When tax departments actually engage with AI, the insights garnered can affect everything from how a company allocates human resources to the very direction a business decides to take in the wake of new tax regulations. Tax departments just entering the automation space often see the technology as a one-way street -- you set up the solution and it pumps out results. But there is a human side. To truly embrace the full potential of an AI-enabled tax platform, companies need to develop a give-and-take relationship. That means educating the system about the business so the machine can give back insights about how to make the tax function stronger and more efficient.

Governments are leveraging the benefits of AI and robotics in many fields like healthcare services, transportation, defense, and national security. Governments are rapidly accepting the use of AI, which is opening up new opportunities for innovation in government services, like taxation. Tax is the primary source of money for the government which is necessary to support all the public sector functions. Collecting taxes from citizens in a shorter time and reducing the number of tax defaulters increases the effectiveness and efficiency of tax collection. Effective and efficient collection of tax enables the government to make adequate investments in public sector functions.

Thomson Reuters and Crowe LLP are showcasing an innovative collaboration to help tax professionals address the burdensome manual work related to Schedule K-1 forms at the 2019 SYNERGY users' conference. The significant increase in the number of alternative investments over the past decade has led to a growing number of K-1s. More than 40 million K-1 forms are produced annually, each one requiring manual data capture and aggregation into partner tax returns, resulting in countless hours of complex manual work for tax professionals. The K1 Analyzer tool uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to read, extract and analyze K-1 data from front to back, including statements and disclosures. This process virtually eliminates the manual data-entry work associated with K-1s and enables recipients to aggregate their stack of K-1s in minutes, rather than days.

FEI Daily: Can you please describe how CognitiveTax Insight ("CogTax") works and provide some use cases? Andy Gold: CogTax leverages machine learning and smart OCR to ingest both unstructured data (e.g. With the aid of a human who trains the cognitive technology, it applies machine learning technology to that robust amount of data. In the training, an individual will interact with the cognitive technology and "teach" the machine learning taxability determinations based upon the client's facts and transactional information available. Over time, the system learns as it sees more and more transactions that are substantially similar with the goal of providing a highly accurate solution in terms of being able to identify, in real-time, whether a transaction is taxable.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the change and the infinite number of strategic options. But embracing this change is manageable with the right tools and the right partner. Deloitte is helping clients navigate this increasingly complex, digital world by leveraging the combined strength of our technology capabilities from our Consulting and Tax & Legal practices, and by placing a continued emphasis on technology investment and skills development to prepare talent to meet the evolving needs of the business. Businesses in all sectors and regions are experiencing the opportunities and challenges that come with the immense changes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Even the most traditional business areas, such as tax and legal, are not immune.

Other than simplifying jobs, what can ML do to improve functions in data-intensive industries? Given the rise of machine learning (ML), the disruptive potential on every industry has become commonly accepted knowledge. What's been referred to as the merging of humans and machines is poised to transform society, politics, industrial processes, medicine, business and even war. In fact, IDC projects that 75 percent of future business software will include some form of artificial intelligence (ML being a form of AI) features within the year. The benefits of this type of technology are most significant within data-intensive, algorithm-based industries.

The adoption and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to accelerate at an exponential rate in modern businesses. At the start of 2017, BMW signed on to develop in-car AI and IoT services using IBM Watson. Having learned the i8 owner's manual, Watson utilizes its natural language capabilities to understand the driver's queries and provide the answers in a conversational style. Businesses currently investing in AI and advanced search and analytics are in the process of building our future, creating their own pathways to business success, and gaining a competitive edge in their markets.

The adoption and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to accelerate at an exponential rate in modern businesses. At the start of 2017, BMW signed on to develop in-car AI and IoT services using IBM Watson. Having learned the i8 owner's manual, Watson utilizes its natural language capabilities to understand the driver's queries and provide the answers in a conversational style. Businesses currently investing in AI and advanced search and analytics are in the process of building our future, creating their own pathways to business success, and gaining a competitive edge in their markets.

From automating reporting to improving forecasting, see how AI is making a difference. Artificial intelligence (AI), especially machine learning, is rapidly finding a role across a variety of enterprise functions. One that you may not have considered is AI's applicability to tax. Here are five ways that AI is reinventing the world of tax functions. One of AI's most simplistic--yet useful--applications involves the automation of routine tasks, the kind of time-consuming work that can fill a professional's workday.

Tax season has arrived again and everyone is working crazy hours to fulfil their obligations. However, this season brings a refreshing and long-awaited wave of innovations that aim to put an end to the pain of repetitive manual data entry for good: artificial intelligence bots. Yes, most people will read this and think "It was about time, eh?", but for those who are a little bit more familiar with the tax environment it's fair to say that this can be a game-changer. A.I. can bring dramatic impacts to a wide range of industries, and its effects have already begun for a considerable number of small businesses, CPA practices, and bookkeeping practices worldwide; even the White House is a big supporter of the cause. So this is how it works: most commonly, A.I. is being brought to the tax scene in the form of automated data entry bots, which allow people to enter data from receipts and bills using their smartphone cameras.