Thomson Reuters launches new AI-Assisted Research skill saving customers time on complex tax research

TORONTO, July 22, 2024 – Thomson Reuters (NYSE/TSX: TRI), a global content and technology company, today announced the launch of Checkpoint Edge with CoCounsel, which is now generally available in the United States. The enhanced solution features a new AI-Assisted Research skill, and is designed to help today’s tax professionals get trusted answers to complex tax research questions  using CoCounsel, the professional-grade GenAI assistant from Thomson Reuters.

Checkpoint Edge with CoCounsel helps tax firms leverage the transformative capabilities of GenAI. Tax research has historically been a labor-intensive process, often requiring extensive manual effort. This new AI-Assisted Research skill leverages large language models (LLMs) providing an intuitive interface for tax professionals to pose questions to in everyday language. In response, the solution provides relevant answers with links to trusted Checkpoint Edge editorial content  in moments, saving time, increasing efficiency, and supporting decision-making.

“The exacting nature of the tax profession means mistakes can have significant consequences, and with the current tax staffing shortages, our customers are hungry for solutions that can bring them time-savings and augment their work,” said Nancy Hawkins, vice president of Product Management, Research, Thomson Reuters.  

“We’re excited to be launching Checkpoint Edge with CoCounsel to redefine how professionals perform tax research. With this solution, we are helping our customers gain more capacity, whether for downtime or business growth, which is truly fulfilling. Many professionals that are required to perform tax research are not attorneys themselves, and making the research process easier and faster for them is what this product is all about.”

Critical time savings

In the Thomson Reuters 2024 Future of Professionals report respondents predicted AI to free up four hours per week in the next year, rising to five hours per week for tax professionals. During beta testing of Checkpoint Edge with CoCounsel, almost 70% of customers felt that AI-Assisted Research on Checkpoint Edge with CoCounsel would help them perform their job more effectively. 

Gary Brown, Owner and Principal at Gary Brown CPA, a firm based in Georgetown, Texas, was among the customers that took part in the beta program. “Checkpoint Edge with CoCounsel is an innovative tool that allows the use of a question to get a specific response, plus it provides citations without having to search multiple responses to find an answer to a query,” said Brown. “This saves significant time by providing a focused response versus a list of multiple responses that need to be sorted through to find the desired result, providing significant time savings for research.”

Two thirds of customers that took part in the beta program expected Checkpoint Edge with CoCounsel to become their primary method for starting Federal tax research upon launch. Brent Forbush, Managing Partner, Forbush & Associates, based in Reno, Nevada, said: “Trying to read an entire document for up to 30 minutes and trying to really understand those very minute differences and paragraphs and sub-paragraphs, Checkpoint Edge with CoCounsel will now give us the opportunity to receive this answer in a more simplified and relatable format where we can read it and understand it, see the citations as we need, and provide that answer to a client or internally to our own staff.”

Trusted answers

Thomson Reuters has been deploying AI and language models for over 30 years and the development of its GenAI solutions includes human-in-the-loop consideration throughout the AI model lifecycle.

During the development of Checkpoint Edge with CoCounsel, humans played a critical role in training the LLMs to respond to customer questions effectively. “The deep expertise and diversity of industry experience within Thomson Reuters team of tax and accounting experts and content editors is reflected within our solution and that is unmatched,” adds Hawkins. 

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters (NYSE / TSX: TRI) (“TR”) informs the way forward by bringing together the trusted content and technology that people and organizations need to make the right decisions. The company serves professionals across legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media. Its products combine highly specialized software and insights to empower professionals with the data, intelligence, and solutions needed to make informed decisions, and to help institutions in their pursuit of justice, truth, and transparency. Reuters, part of Thomson Reuters, is a world leading provider of trusted journalism and news. For more information, visit tr.com.

Contact 

Kirsty Bennett
Director, Customer and Product PR
kirsty.bennett@thomsonreuters.com