In June, Mark Carney launched “AI for All,” Canada’s national AI strategy. It rests on three guiding principles: build trust, create opportunity, and reinforce sovereignty. It also paints a clear picture: Canada is still among the slowest countries to adopt AI at scale. The goal is for 60% of businesses to be using AI by 2034. Today, it is just over 12%.
The tax profession tells a different story. In tax, professionals are ahead of their firms. In our fourth annual Future of Professionals report, based on more than 1,800 professionals worldwide across 40 countries including Canada: While 81 percent of tax and audit professionals said they now use AI several times a week, 35 percent of the same professionals use AI tools their firm has not authorized.
This means there is no record of what content was given, what it produced, or whether anyone checked it. If that work is ever challenged in a regulatory inquiry, the firm will not be able to defend what role AI plays.
There are two additional pressures building behind AI usage: your people and your clients. On talent, 26 percent of these professionals say they would turn down a job at a firm that did not offer access to professional-grade AI tools. As for clients, 89 percent of corporate tax clients say AI-enabled quality improvements are very important, or essential. They want results, not optics.
Introducing the new CoCounsel Tax Canada
The tax profession never stands still. In Canada, those in the tax segment navigate in one of the world’s most dynamic regulatory environments. Frequent legislative updates, evolving Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) guidance, increasingly sophisticated tax planning requirements, and growing client demands are making tax research and compliance more time-intensive than ever.
This is why tax professionals require more than general-purpose AI that is limited to answering questions with generic responses. Almost right is not good enough. A tax return, an audit opinion, a position taken with the CRA. Someone signs their name to each one. I want to be clear about what tax firms actually need: the combination of agentic AI that executes more of the work, governed workflows, and output they can defend.
The new CoCounsel Tax Canada has been purpose-built for the Canadian tax professional and to meet our Fiduciary-Grade AI™ standard, and designed around three business outcomes:
- Accelerate execution. Routine research, document analysis and first drafts including client letters and email take less time, so professionals can spend it applying judgment instead of starting from scratch.
- Elevate client value. Less time on repetitive tasks means more time spotting planning opportunities and advising clients on the matters that count. CoCounsel enables firms to shift their business toward higher-value work.
- Transform how expertise scales. Standardized workflows and shared knowledge help professionals at every level. Junior staff can take on more complex work, while senior professionals can focus on strategic review, client relationships, and growth.
The CoCounsel Tax Canada capabilities in practice
When I say that the tax profession needs more than a general-purpose AI, what I am referencing are the innovative capabilities that power the CoCounsel Tax Canada experience and that customers have been waiting for. CoCounsel Tax Canada combines agentic AI with governed workflows. Tax teams can conduct thorough research, analyze complex scenarios, and identify potential tax-savings opportunities for their clients. The professional stays in control throughout.
New CoCounsel capabilities include:
- Research you can defend. Grounded in the authoritative Canadian tax research content of Taxnet Pro including legislation, regulations, and government guidance, and expert commentary. CoCounsel Tax produces trusted, defensible outcomes Canadian tax professionals can stand behind, with every output transparent, verifiable, and traceable.
- Work product, not just answers. Analyses, summaries and first drafts, so your team spends its time reviewing and refining instead of staring at a blank page.
- Document analysis at scale. Upload multiple engagement documents at once, surface key facts and risks, and pull what matters into your working papers. Your team can verify every finding.
- Templates that standardize quality. Firm-approved templates and Canadian-specific workflows keep recurring tasks consistent and give junior staff step-by-step guidance they can follow with confidence.
- A knowledge base for your firm. Bring your own documents into CoCounsel’s Knowledge Base, so your firm’s knowledge and Taxnet Pro’s authoritative content work together.
The future of the Canadian tax practice
Canada’s tax community is built on precision and accountability. Those values are not an obstacle to AI adoption. They are the foundation for doing it right. The firms that move with purpose now will define what tax excellence looks like for years to come.
Last week we hosted customers in Toronto for a first look at CoCounsel Tax Canada. Following the live demo that closed the session, the excitement expressed by customers was palpable.
CoCounsel Tax Canada will be available on October 30 in English. French-language support is planned for a future release. If you are a tax professional in Canada, Thomson Reuters would love to show you what it can do. Visit our website to learn more or request a demo.
