EY: generative AI won't replace tax staff, it turns them into 'process designers'

As generative AI and automation tools spread rapidly, tax work that has long relied heavily on regulatory research, document filing and tax-return preparation is facing structural change — and concern within the industry over whether tax staff will be replaced by AI. Addressing that concern, EY (Ernst & Young) says AI will not replace talent, but is reshaping tax professionals into 'process designers,' accelerating their shift toward higher-value work such as business strategy analysis and client advisory.

To lead this shift and speed up the reskilling of its people, EY's tax practice has, since 2025, rolled out a digital transformation programme called 'Future Tax,' embedding AI into daily work and setting up a 'bottom-up' innovation system that encourages frontline staff to propose AI applications for optimising processes, which a dedicated team then helps develop and put into practice.

Efficiency gains of up to five times

This human-AI collaboration model has already shown concrete results, with efficiency on several tasks rising by a factor of 1 to 5. EY cites 'client group structure analysis' as a concrete example: previously, a staff member needed more than five hours to manually look up shareholding information at every level and draw organisational charts by hand. With AI collaboration, the AI quickly handles data collection and produces a first draft of the chart, while the employee focuses on checking logic and accuracy — cutting total working time to just one hour.

Total working time has dropped sharply to one hour, which significantly boosts efficiency while still ensuring the quality of the output. AI will not replace tax talent — it is redefining the value of talent. In future, companies will need people who combine professional judgement, business insight and technological fluency.

Four core skills tax professionals must build

Lin says that in the AI era, tax professionals must build four core competencies through human-AI collaboration. The first is breaking free from repetitive work: junior tax staff used to spend enormous amounts of time gathering regulations and compiling documents. Now that AI handles this groundwork, younger talent can redirect their energy toward industry research, tax-planning analysis and client communication, getting earlier access to core projects and accelerating their professional growth.

The second is evolving from 'executor' to 'process designer.' Lin notes that the change AI brings goes beyond efficiency — it redefines organisational roles. Tomorrow's talent must not only carry out tasks but also identify problems, optimise processes and use technology to improve how work gets done, becoming drivers of change rather than mere executors.

The third is developing professional expertise and digital skills in parallel. With generative AI now widespread, professional knowledge alone is no longer enough to meet market demand; people with strong digital-tool fluency, problem-breakdown skills, critical thinking and the ability to learn across disciplines will have greater potential for growth.

The fourth is turning the time saved into an irreplaceable 'relationship of trust.' Lin says the time AI saves should ultimately benefit clients: professionals can use it to visit clients more often and take part in operational discussions, upgrading tax advice from passively 'answering questions' to proactively 'flagging risks early.' That trust relationship, which cannot be automated, is the single most central asset of professional services.

Competitiveness is measured by growth capacity, not headcount

EY observes that younger generations increasingly value how fast they grow, the learning opportunities available to them, and their personal impact at work. EY says that in the AI era, a company's competitiveness is no longer just about how many people it employs, but whether it can keep developing them continuously; digital transformation is not just about adopting new tools, but about redesigning how talent develops. Through deep collaboration between AI and professional expertise, tax work has successfully overturned the outside perception of the job as repetitive and unchanging. Taiwan's CnYes (鉅亨網) carried the same story the same day, likewise quoting Lin Zhixiang and confirming the case of 'client group structure analysis' shrinking from five hours to one, and noting that EY's digital transformation has lifted overall efficiency in human-AI collaboration by a factor of 1 to 5.

For accounting and consulting firms in the United States and other English-speaking markets, the shift EY describes echoes a wider industry trend: the Big Four and mid-tier tax practices are all racing to fold generative AI into compliance and advisory work. For young professionals entering the field, the lesson is less about job security than about positioning — those who move early to build the digital fluency and business judgement EY describes are the ones likely to get pulled into higher-value client work first, rather than being left to compete on tasks AI can now do faster.