Thomson Reuters Launches Checkpoint Edge, a New AI-Powered Tax and Accounting Research Platform

Thomson Reuters has announced the launch of Thomson Reuters Checkpoint Edge, a breakthrough new AI-powered tax research platform that provides the fastest answers to the most complex tax law and regulatory questions. Checkpoint Edge draws on the robust Checkpoint tax databases, which include over 25,000 tax law, insights and analysis updates each month from the award-winning Checkpoint editorial team.

Checkpoint Edge quickly delivers the most relevant and accurate information tax professionals need to respond to the challenges of their clients and other stakeholders within the constantly-changing tax regulatory landscape. The tool was developed by Thomson Reuters product development team along with Thomson Reuters Center for AI and Cognitive Computing and leverages the latest in artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive computing and machine learning. The Center for AI and Cognitive Computing is a world-leader in applying AI to Thomson Reuters highly specialized information-enabled tools for legal, tax, accounting and compliance professionals and was also behind the recent launch of Thomson Reuters Westlaw Edge, the most advanced legal research system in the legal market.

Clients and stakeholders call upon tax and accounting professionals for a wide variety of information, with expectations that the data will be forthcoming. Corporate tax departments need to know how new tax regulations will impact their businesses, and firms must be able to advise clients on a variety of complex tax and accounting issues. Accountants at firms and in corporations, therefore, require a sophisticated research capability that provides quick and robust answers to their questions.

Checkpoint Edge incorporates natural language processing technologies, which enable plain English queries, and AI-powered algorithms, which scan thousands of primary sources and editorial interpretations to surface relevant information. It continually synthesizes users’ questions and search behaviors to learn and improve search results as it is used.

“Tax law today is more complex than ever before,” said Charlotte Rushton, president, Tax & Accounting Professionals at Thomson Reuters. “Last year, in the U.S. alone, there were roughly 500 changes to the federal tax code, with many more cascading changes at the state and local levels. Tax and accounting professionals are expected to keep up with global tax policy that is changing at break-neck pace. With the introduction of Checkpoint Edge, we are putting the most powerful tax research and guidance technology available today directly into the hands of our customers to help them get the answers they need quickly, accurately and efficiently.”

Checkpoint Edge allows users to easily access the full Checkpoint database of current tax law content, along with expert editorial analysis for over 180 different countries. In addition, Checkpoint Edge allows researchers to search trusted public sites alongside proprietary Checkpoint content. The technology also absorbs millions of user data logs and search patterns from Checkpoint’s 200,000+ unique users to continually learn and refine search results over time.

Early feedback from customers reflects the value of Checkpoint Edge’s advanced capabilities. An owner of an accounting firm in Greensburg, Pa., called it, “Extremely valuable… It pulls in an area that you may not have thought of. When you are trying to figure it out all by yourself you are bound to miss something.”

Thomson Reuters has more than 25 years of experience using AI- and machine-learning-based tools to solve defined, relevant problems that professionals are facing. The company uses three key ingredients to develop AI-based solutions: content, subject matter expertise and technology.

Checkpoint Edge will be commercially available on June 25, 2019. For more information, visit Thomson Reuters Checkpoint Edge.