Benzinga - by Chris Katje, Benzinga Staff Writer.
The 2023 year continues to see increased use cases and rising interest in artificial intelligence (AI).
Among the new use cases for AI could be helping with the annual burden of filing taxes.
What Happened: More companies are looking for ways to utilize AI to help with operations. Leading tax preparer H&R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB) is one of those companies.
The Kansas City, Missouri-based firm announced the launch of H&R Block AI Assist. The generative AI experience can help individuals, self-employed filers and small business owners with tax preparation.
The company is using AI technology from Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Azure OpenAI to help streamline the tax preparation process.
H&R Block said it is the only company in the tax industry to be selected by Microsoft to participate in its "AI 100" to offer solutions using Azure OpenAI Service.
The new AI Tax Assist offers unlimited help with no extra fees, including live help, for certain plan offerings from the company.
The free version of H&R Block won't include the new AI tools. However, the company told The Verge that the prices of the other subscription tiers did not go up with the added tools.
"Individuals are increasingly exploring AI technologies for greater efficiency, but those tools are only reliable if developed with accurate information from trustworthy sources," SVP Consumer Tax Products at H&R Block Heather Watts said.
Watts said the new offering uses generative AI alongside the trusted tax expertise of H&R Block. This includes data from H&R Block's The Tax Institute and the experience of over 60,000 tax professionals.
According to the company H&R Block AI Tax Assist can help with tax forms, and deductions, answering tax theory questions, provide guidance on tax rules, and answer questions on tax codes.
Related Link: 4 Analysts Have This to Say About H&R Block
Why It's Important: Rival tax company Intuit Inc (NASDAQ:INTU) announced the launch of generative AI tax offerings in November.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is also using AI tools to help with tax enforcement and audits.
Artificial intelligence could become more widely used when it comes to tax preparation annually. H&R Block also hopes the new tools keep people on their platform.
"We want to empower customers to ask questions as deep as they want, and over time, we can give more personalized answers to their questions on our platform through AI Tax Assist," H&R Block VP of Consumer Tax Products Chris Linderwell said, as shared by The Verge.
Linderwell said that users sometimes turn to search engines like Google while filing their taxes to ask questions. The new AI tools and live help could instead answer the questions directly within the H&R Block platform.
HRB Price Action: H&R Block shares are up 2% to $47.67 on Thursday, hitting new 52-week highs. Shares of the tax preparation company are up 36% year-to-date in 2023.
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