Thomson Reuters has introduced a new development in artificial intelligence (AI) with agentic AI systems, starting with the launch of CoCounsel for tax, audit, and accounting sectors.
According to the company, unlike existing AI assistants that react to prompts, these systems are designed to plan, reason, act, and adapt within real-world workflows to complete complex tasks with transparency and precision. These systems are refined by legal and tax experts to align with industry standards while maintaining human oversight for validation and decision-making.
The agentic platform has been in development for over a year, following the acquisition of Materia, a startup known for its work in agentic systems for tax and accounting. Its foundation is already active in several major US accounting firms’ products.
These systems are now being integrated into platforms covering legal, tax, risk, and compliance, tailored for environments where accuracy is crucial.
Thomson Reuters chief product officer David Wong said: “Agentic AI isn’t a marketing buzzword. It’s a new blueprint for how complex work gets done.
“We’re delivering systems that don’t just assist but operate inside the workflows professionals use every day. The AI understands the goal, breaks it into steps, takes action, and knows when to escalate for human input — all with human oversight built in to ensure accountability and trust.”
Thomson Reuters said that it has embedded agentic capabilities within its existing core product frameworks instead of creating separate tools. This integration uses features from platforms like Checkpoint, Westlaw, and Practical Law to enable AI agents to work within recognised industry practices.
CoCounsel, the first of these new systems, serves tax and accounting professionals by automating tasks such as client file review and compliance checks while providing explainable outputs. It integrates firm knowledge, Checkpoint resources, IRS codes, and internal documents into a single AI-supported workspace.
Next up is Ready to Review, an application for tax preparation based on the GoSystem Tax Engine. This system assists with tax returns by drafting them independently, adapting based on feedback, and resolving diagnostics without human intervention.
The rollout of agentic systems will continue this year across legal, risk and trade, and compliance domains. This includes intelligent workflows for tasks like drafting legal documents, generating employment policies, analysing depositions, and assessing compliance risks.
Current tools such as CoCounsel, Westlaw, and Practical Law will be enhanced with full agentic orchestration to enable planning, execution, and adaptation across platforms.
These systems are designed for goal-oriented execution in multi-step legal and compliance tasks. They utilise task-specific tool orchestration involving Thomson Reuters platforms and third-party services.
Human oversight ensures safety and accuracy, supported by transparent reasoning and traceable sourcing, said the firm. Customised large language models (LLMs) trained by internal experts further enhance these capabilities.
