Inside Thomson Reuters’ Plan to Automate the Tax Return

Inside Thomson Reuters’ Plan to Automate the Tax Return

February 5, 2026 · 49 min · Episode 109

About this episode

Blake Oliver discusses the future of tax preparation and automation with Thomson Reuters' Elizabeth Beastrom and Kirat Sekhon.

AI won’t replace accountants—but AI-enabled firms will outcompete them. Blake Oliver sits down with Thomson Reuters’ Elizabeth Beastrom and Kirat Sekhon to map the end-to-end tax workflow, from document intake and auto-population (SurePrep) to delivery and e-sign (SafeSend), and into year-round advisory with CoCounsel and Ready to Advise. Learn how to “kill the questionnaire,” free staff from data entry, build an open tech stack, and turn tax prep into subscription advisory. Chapters (02:49) - Technology Expectations of New Accountants (03:38) - The Shift from Desktop to Cloud-Based Tax Software (05:14) - Thomson Reuters' Approach to Customer-Centric Tax Technology (05:55) - Automation and AI in Tax Workflow (10:58) - The Role of SurePrep in Data Entry Automation (18:34) - Advisory Services and Ready to Advise (24:53) - AI in Onboarding and Knowledge Transfer (25:35) - Empowering Junior Associates with AI (26:41) - AI in Education and Talent Attraction (30:40) - AI's Role in Tax and Accounting (33:58) - The Future of AI in Tax Preparation (41:59) - AI-Driven Advisory Services (47:41) - Practical Steps for Tax Firms to Embrace AI Sign up to get free CPE for listening to this…

People in this episode

Host: Blake Oliver

Guests: Elizabeth Beastrom, Kirat Sekhon

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Thomson Reuters

Products: SurePrep, SafeSend, CoCounsel, Ready to Advise

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