The rise of the AI accountant: Cheaper. Faster. Riskier? (www.techradar.com)

The UK is entering what Taxfix calls its first truly AI-led tax season: a Taxfix survey found 59% of people who file Self Assessment returns plan to use AI tools ahead of HMRC’s 31 January deadline. Users cite speed (39%), convenience (36%) and cost (33%), and 79% say AI reduces tax-season stress. This mirrors broader behaviour: OpenAI’s analysis of 1.5 million conversations shows almost half of users now treat ChatGPT as an advisor. But accountants warn of real risks—73% say AI gives incomplete advice, 62% flag problems with nuance, and 52% note gaps in UK-specific tax knowledge—leading to misapplied allowances, missed reliefs or penalties. Taxfix recounts a client who wrongly used the £1,000 trading allowance instead of claiming expenses and would have fallen into a 60% tax trap but for human intervention. For accountants, AI is both a productivity tool and a disruption to client dynamics. Internally, firms can delegate data extraction, document management, anomaly detection and plain-English translation of rules to AI, freeing time for higher-value work. Externally, clients increasingly arrive with AI-generated assumptions (and younger filers prefer TikTok/YouTube tax tips), so professionals must validate, explain and correct outputs. The takeaway: a hybrid model—AI for routine automation, humans for compliance, nuance and reassurance—appears to be the pragmatic path to safer, cheaper and faster tax filing.