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What Thomson Reuters Shipped

Thomson Reuters announced three agentic AI capabilities in early 2026, each targeting a distinct part of the accounting workflow:

1. Ready to Review — 1040 Prep, 80–90% Complete on Arrival

What it does: "Ready to Review" automates the preparation stage of U.S. 1040 returns. It processes source documents (W-2s, 1099s, investment statements, prior-year returns) and assembles the return autonomously. The output: a return that is 80–90% complete when it reaches the professional reviewer.

What that means in practice: The staff accountant's role on a standard 1040 shifts from data entry and document assembly to review, judgment, and sign-off. The professional still owns the work — but the production labor changes materially.

Which TR product: Available through Thomson Reuters' tax preparation platform (UltraTax CS and related products).

2. ONESOURCE Touchless Compliance — Sales and Use Tax, Up to 65% Faster

What it does: ONESOURCE Sales and Use Tax AI automates routine, recurring sales and use tax filings — the monthly and quarterly compliance work involving established jurisdictions and standard transaction types. Thomson Reuters reports it cuts time on these routine filings by up to 65%.

What that means in practice: For accounting firms doing high-volume sales tax compliance across multiple client states, this is the back-office automation that removes the most repetitive work. Anomalies and edge cases still surface for human review; routine filings run on their own.

Which TR product: Available through ONESOURCE Sales and Use Tax.

3. CoCounsel Document Analysis — Audit Sample Review With Cited Workpapers

What it does: CoCounsel Document Analysis automates the document processing portion of audit engagements. It reviews large samples of documents, extracts critical data, identifies patterns and anomalies, and produces cited workpapers that document the analysis — ready for professional review.

What that means in practice: For a small audit team handling high-volume document review on an engagement, this is the equivalent of an automated first-pass reviewer. The auditor still exercises judgment on findings, but the document-handling and initial workpaper preparation is automated.

Which TR product: Available through CoCounsel, which also integrates with Checkpoint.

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The Staffing Math Question

Here's the number that changes when "Ready to Review" is in your workflow:

If a staff accountant currently spends an average of 3 hours assembling and preparing a standard 1040 — pulling documents, entering data, resolving missing information, constructing the draft — "Ready to Review" moves that to a 30–45 minute review of a near-complete return.

For a firm preparing 400 returns per tax season, that's a material shift in staff capacity requirements. The question isn't whether to use the tool — it's what you do with the capacity it creates.

Three choices, and your answer matters:

Option 1: Serve more clients. Same staff, more returns, more revenue. This is the growth path — and it requires that your fee structure doesn't compress as your per-return labor cost falls.

Option 2: Provide deeper advisory work. Same staff, same return volume, more time per client for tax planning and advisory conversations. This is the relationship-deepening path — and it requires a pricing model that captures advisory value, not just compliance volume.

Option 3: Reduce seasonal staffing. If you currently bring in seasonal staff for tax season production work, the AI handles more of that capacity. Lower variable cost, tighter year-round team. This is the margin path — and it requires that your permanent staff can operate the review workflow confidently.

None of these options is wrong. But you need to choose one intentionally, because the AI doesn't make the business model decision for you. It creates the capacity. You decide what to do with it.

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If You're Not on the Thomson Reuters Platform

The honest answer: you're not behind yet, but the direction is clear.

If you're on Drake, ProSeries, Lacerte, CCH Axcess, or another tax platform, the right question is: what is your platform doing on agentic AI, and on what timeline?

Thomson Reuters is not the only player moving here. The entire tax software industry is heading toward agentic AI in the preparation layer. Thomson Reuters is the first major platform to ship it at scale, but they won't be the last. Your platform's 2026 roadmap is worth asking about.

Before considering a platform switch:

• Get your current platform's 2026 AI roadmap in writing from a sales rep
• Understand the true per-return cost difference at your volume
• Ask whether TR's 80–90% completion rate applies to the complexity of returns you typically prepare (it may be a stronger match for 1040 volume work than for complex pass-through or business returns)
• Don't switch platforms during an active tax season — evaluate for post-season implementation

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What to Do This Week

If you're on the Thomson Reuters platform:

This week: Ask your TR account representative what your current subscription includes for "Ready to Review." It launched in early 2026 — if you're not already seeing it in UltraTax, ask when it activates for your subscription tier.

Before you roll it out: Run it on 5–10 returns of varying complexity (simple 1040s, 1040s with schedules, one business return if applicable) before relying on it for production. Establish your own sense of what "80–90% complete" means for your specific client base. Some return types will come back at 95%. Some will need more work. Know where your returns land before you reconfigure your workflow.

Then: Decide which of the three capacity paths above you're taking. That decision is worth 30 minutes of deliberate thought now — before the AI makes it for you by default.

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Sources: CPA Practice Advisor — "Thomson Reuters Launches Agentic AI Platform for Tax and Accounting Pros" (June 2025/early 2026); Accounting Today — "Thomson Reuters Touts Agentic AI Enhancements"; PRNewswire — "Thomson Reuters Advances AI Market Leadership with New Agentic AI Solutions" (2026). Time savings figures are Thomson Reuters company-reported.