Avalara unveils AI assistant Avi to simplify complex tax research
Avi for Tax Research draws on Avalara's extensive library of tax content to provide users with rapid, comprehensive answers regarding the tax status of products, audit risk, and precise sales tax rates for specific addresses.
Capabilities outlined
The AI assistant offers several features to advance the workflow of tax and trade professionals.
Among its core capabilities, Avi for Tax Research allows users to instantly verify the taxability of products and services through straightforward queries. The tool delivers responses referencing Avalara's comprehensive tax database, aiming to ensure both speed and reliability in answering enquiries.
Additional support includes access to up-to-date official guidance to help mitigate audit risks and reinforce defensible tax positions. By providing real-time insights, professionals can proactively adapt to changes in tax regulations without needing to perform extensive manual research.
For businesses operating across multiple locations, Avi for Tax Research enables the generation of precise, rooftop-level sales tax rates tailored to individual street addresses, which can improve compliance accuracy to the level of local jurisdiction requirements.
Designed for ease of use
The assistant is built with an intuitive conversational interface intended to be accessible to professionals across departments, including those lacking a formal tax background.
According to Avalara, this functionality should help improve operational efficiency and collaboration by reducing the skills barrier usually associated with tax research.
Avalara's EVP and Chief Technology Officer, Danny Fields, described the new capabilities in the context of broader industry trends. "The tax compliance industry is at the dawn of unprecedented innovation driven by rapid advancements in AI," said Danny Fields, EVP and Chief Technology Officer of Avalara. "Avalara's technology mission is to equip customers with reliable, intuitive tools that simplify their work and accelerate business outcomes."
The company attributes Avi's capabilities to its two decades of tax and compliance experience, which inform the AI's underlying content and context-specific decision making. By making use of Avalara's metadata, the solution is intended to shorten the time spent on manual analysis, offering instant and trusted answers to user questions and potentially allowing compliance teams to allocate more time to business priorities.
Deployment and access
The tool is available immediately to existing ATR customers without additional setup.
New customers have the opportunity to explore Avi for Tax Research through a free trial, which Avalara states is designed to reduce manual effort and deliver actionable information for tax research. Customers can use the AI assistant to submit tax compliance research questions and receive instant responses tailored to their requirements.
Avalara delivers technology aimed at supporting over 43,000 business and government customers across more than 75 countries, providing tax compliance solutions that integrate with leading eCommerce, ERP, and billing systems.
The release of Avi for Tax Research follows continued developments in AI applications for business compliance functions, reflecting the increasing demand for automation and accuracy in global tax and trade environments.
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