The accolade, announced on April 23,��2026,��is awarded to �������� for��This purpose-built agentic AI platform is designed for professionals who prioritize accuracy, accountability, and trust. ��

Built for fiduciary-grade AI��

Since its launch in March 2025,����has been adopted by firms of��all sizes across the��United States,��with��users reporting time savings of��32% per task. The solution��draws on��Thomson��Reuters Checkpoint expert-authored��content, as well as primary sources including the IRS, FASB, GASB, AICPA, and IFRS, with every answer cited and defensible.����

Judges praised����for��demonstrating��“strong innovation��in enterprise AI by delivering��an agentic AI platform that integrates research, analysis, and workflow automation into a secure,��authoritative��environment��for accounting��professionals.”��Others��highlighted��its��“strong enterprise credibility and clear positioning in a regulated domain,”��and its��“intriguing use of AI to complement human work in a notoriously complex field.”��

“CoCounsel��Tax & Audit was built to solve real problems for real professionals, and this recognition is a testament to the transformative work our team has done to reimagine what’s possible for tax and accounting professionals,”��said , President, Tax & Accounting Professionals, ��������.��“I’m proud of the meaningful, measurable impact we’re delivering for thousands of firms across the country.”��

More than 3,700 nominations from organizations of all sizes and industries were submitted this year for consideration. More than 230 professionals worldwide participating in the judging process to select this year’s Stevie Award winners.��

“Organizations across the United States continue to set a high standard for innovation and performance,”��said��Maggie Miller,��Stevie Awards President.��“The breadth and quality of nominations submitted to the 2026 American Business Awards reflect a dynamic and competitive business environment, where organizations are finding new ways to drive growth, deliver value, and make an impact.”��

Recognition beyond the Stevie Award��

The Stevie��Award��follows��,��which��recently highlighted �������� as one of the vendors most visibly shaping the agentic AI conversation in the tax industry. The��scale of��CoCounsel’s��adoption and its integration across the broader �������� stack��are��cited��as meaningful competitive differentiators in its ‘Agentic AI Tax Race’ series.����

The 2026 AI in Professional Services Report from �������� tells a striking story. Sixty-two percent of professionals are using generative AI daily. Thirty-four percent of tax firms are deploying it at an organizational level — up from 21% just a year ago. And yet only 19% of those firms are actually measuring the ROI of their AI tools. More than half aren’t measuring at all, and the remainder have no idea how their firms are measuring AI’s output. The pace of change is accelerating faster than most firms anticipated, and the window for early-mover advantage is closing.

But adoption alone isn’t the headline. The real story is what’s happening inside the firms that have moved from experimentation to transformation.

Leading firms are putting AI to work

Our research shows that just 14% of tax firms say agentic AI is currently part of their workflow, but 80% expect it to be central to how their organization operates within five years. The question for every firm leader is whether they’re building for that future today or planning to catch up later.

At ��������, we launched in March 2025 — not as a pilot, but as a fully deployed, purpose-built agentic AI platform. In the months since, thousands of firms have embedded it into their daily workflows, and the results are measurable. The CoCounsel solutions include , and — tools that are helping firms transform the way they do tax research, tax preparation and strategic advisory. And users are reaping the benefits — with average time savings of 32% per task. Research that once consumed three to five hours now takes fifteen to thirty minutes. As , Tax Partner at Copeland Buhl, one of the top 20 accounting and advisory firms in the Midwest, puts it: “It’s a super easy way to ask very complicated tax questions from a reliable source… Everybody has said they can’t live without this anymore.”

What sets CoCounsel apart is the fiduciary-grade AI it’s built on: drawing from trusted sources including more than 12 million �������� Checkpoint expert-authored pieces, plus primary sources including IRS, FASB, GASB, AICPA, and IFRS. Every answer is cited, and every output is defensible. That matters in a profession where accuracy is non-negotiable.

, Principal at Virginia-based firm Harris, Hardy & Johnstone, captures what time savings means in practice: “Time is worth more than anything else. Our industry is so choked for time that any minute I get back could mean an extra evening with my wife or a vacation without stress.”

Built for the work — not retrofitted to it

What I hear most often from firm leaders evaluating AI tools is a version of the same concern: how do I know I can trust it? It’s the right question. General-purpose AI can generate plausible-sounding answers. But the high-stakes work tax and audit professionals do day-to-day means they need answers they can stand behind.

, Senior Tax Managing Director at Arizona-based firm Jansen & Company CPAs, tried several AI tools before landing on CoCounsel. His verdict: “It saves us time, but not just time — there’s an accuracy and a confidence element there… CoCounsel shines for deep research. Nobody can touch it.”

AI is no longer a future consideration for tax and audit firms. It’s reshaping the profession now, across firms of every size. At ��������, we have moved beyond promise to delivery — in CoCounsel Tax & Audit, providing AI technology that is already transforming how high-stakes work gets done.

Elizabeth Beastrom is President, Tax, Audit & Accounting Professionals at ��������