AI adoption is accelerating, but tax firms risk falling behind. Without clear success metrics, talent will leave, and competitive advantage will be lost. A new Tolley survey of UK tax practitioners reveals...
Launch event for the consolidated tax laws at RELX Headquarters in London with Ian Glencross, Mai Trinh, Marcia Balisciano, Paul Walker, Ambassador Lalisa Birhanu, Dominic Mathon, Nick Luff, Lisa Mackie...
The rise of generative AI is rapidly transforming the tax profession. A recent survey by Tolley found that over a third of UK tax practitioners are already using these powerful AI tools, with many more...
The tax profession is in the midst of an AI revolution. Generative AI tools are rapidly transforming how tax practitioners research issues, draft documents, and serve clients. While the potential benefits...
Practitioners across the UK are eagerly embracing generative AI to streamline their workflows and enhance productivity. According to a recent survey by Tolley, 35% of tax professionals are already using...
The AI revolution has arrived for tax professionals, bringing both immense opportunities and challenges when it comes to the training of tax practitioners. As generative AI tools become increasingly powerful and ubiquitous, they are poised to radically reshape how tax training is conducted and the skillsets needed to succeed in this rapidly evolving field..
One of the primary benefits AI offers tax training is enhanced efficiency and productivity. According to a recent Tolley survey, a staggering 91% of UK tax practitioners plan to use generative AI for researching tax matters, while 87% intend to leverage it for drafting documents. By automating time-consuming tasks like legal research and document creation, AI frees up tax trainees to focus on higher-level skills like critical thinking, analysis, and client advisory.
“Gone are the times where you have to spend hours, days, or even months reviewing thousands of technical documents,” says Bivek Sharma, Chief Technology Officer at PwC. “The combination of human touch and technology allows us to accelerate deliverables, react quicker to client queries and obtain insights much more effectively than before.”
The survey also revealed significant concerns among tax professionals regarding the reliability and security of public access generative AI tools, with 77% voicing apprehension. As Jonathan Scriven, Director of Tax Markets at Tolley, notes, “There's a huge fear of providing the wrong advice to clients, which is particularly heightened by issues with public access generative AI.”
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To address these concerns, tax training programmes must emphasise the importance of using AI tools grounded in authoritative, trustworthy tax content sources. Encouragingly, the survey found that 71% of respondents would be more confident using AI-powered tools linked to verifiable tax authorities.
As AI automates more routine tasks, the skills required of tax professionals will inevitably shift. Hayley McKelvey, Tax and Legal – Digital Innovation Leader at Deloitte, predicts, “Tax professionals will need to be far more fluent in data and data interrogation techniques than they are today, even in a world where AI and GenAI is doing most of the heavy lifting.”
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With AI handling much of the research and drafting workload, tax training will need to place greater emphasis on developing trainees' critical thinking, analysis, and problem-solving abilities. They must learn to evaluate AI-generated outputs critically, identify potential errors or biases, and provide expert human oversight.
Moreover, as Jane MacKay from Crowe notes, “Whatever the quality of the information, if you ask the wrong question, you'll get the wrong answer.” Tax training programmes should prioritise data literacy and prompt engineering skills to ensure trainees can effectively query AI systems and interpret the results.
Finally, with AI taking over more technical tasks, tax professionals' soft skills and client advisory capabilities will become increasingly valuable. Training should focus on honing communication, emotional intelligence, and client relationship management competencies to complement the AI-driven technical expertise.
Integrating AI into tax training curricula will not be without its challenges. With increased automation, MacKay says one concern is how the next generation of tax professionals will develop the skills they need to become well-rounded tax advisers.
“We need to ensure they acquire the right skills to perform different types of work as the simpler tasks become automated.”
Adrian Hextall from Evelyn Partners noted “Many were worried when Excel and Lotus-123 replaced the original paper spreadsheets… and the profession adapted and survived. It will do so again, but perhaps the role of the tax adviser will move closer to a tax law-led data scientist.”
Tax firms and training providers must carefully navigate this transition, ensuring that the next generation of tax professionals acquires the right blend of technical expertise, data skills, and human-centric abilities to thrive in an AI-augmented world.
The rise of generative AI represents a pivotal moment for the tax profession and its training paradigms. While the technology promises unprecedented efficiency gains, it also demands a fundamental rethinking of the skills and competencies required of future tax advisors.
By embracing trustworthy AI tools, emphasising critical thinking and data literacy, and cultivating essential human skills, tax training programmes can equip the next generation of professionals to navigate this AI-driven transformation successfully. Those who adapt will be poised to unlock new opportunities, deliver greater value to clients, and shape the future of the tax advisory landscape.
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