Thomson Reuters, a global leader in content and technology, has unveiled a significant innovation in the evolution of artificial intelligence — the introduction of agentic AI systems, beginning with the launch of CoCounsel for tax, audit, and accounting professionals.
Unlike traditional AI assistants that rely on pre-set prompts to generate responses, agentic AI represents a leap forward. These systems can plan, reason, act, and respond dynamically within complex workflows, executing multi-step tasks with the transparency, accuracy, and accountability required by professionals in high-stakes fields. These agents are trained and refined by subject matter experts to ensure alignment with industry standards and best practices, with human oversight built into the process to guide, validate, and finalize decisions.
“Agentic AI isn’t a marketing buzzword. It’s a new blueprint for how complex work gets done,” said David Wong, Chief Product Officer at Thomson Reuters. “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.”
A Platform Built for Real Professional Use
The agentic AI platform from Thomson Reuters has been in development for more than a year, significantly accelerated by its acquisition of Materia, a pioneering startup specializing in agentic AI for tax and accounting. The technology is already integrated across several products in use by major U.S. accounting firms and is being embedded into platforms across legal, tax, risk, and compliance domains.
What sets this platform apart is its deep integration into core product experiences, rather than being layered on as a standalone tool. The agentic systems tap into the rich capabilities of trusted Thomson Reuters solutions like Checkpoint, Westlaw, and Practical Law, transforming them into intelligent tools that power agent-driven workflows — all enhanced by generative AI.
“We’re not just rebranding AI assistants. We’re engineering full agentic systems — backed by trusted content, custom-trained models, and real domain expertise,” Wong explained. “What others are calling agentic, we’ve already had in the market. What we’re launching now sets a new bar: this is what AI looks like when it’s built with real content, trained with real experts, and trusted by the professionals who do real work.”
CoCounsel: A New Standard for AI in Tax and Accounting
Leading the charge is the release of CoCounsel for tax, audit, and accounting professionals — the first industry-specific agentic AI experience from Thomson Reuters. Designed to manage and automate complex work, CoCounsel performs tasks like client file analysis, memo drafting, and regulatory compliance checks, delivering clear, explainable outputs in real time.
“This isn’t GenAI in a prettier wrapper — it’s a fully integrated, intelligent system built to do the work,” said Kevin Merlini, Vice President of Product at Thomson Reuters and former CEO of Materia. “Now CoCounsel doesn’t just assist — it acts with context, navigates complexity, and integrates directly into how professionals already operate. It’s purpose-built for high-stakes work — and it’s only the beginning.”
OpenAI, whose models power parts of CoCounsel, supports this vision of true agentic AI in action.
“As more platforms launch agentic capabilities, OpenAI is thrilled to power use cases like the ones Thomson Reuters is bringing to its vast ecosystem of professional users,” said Olivier Godement, Head of Product, Platform at OpenAI.
Early adopters are already experiencing substantial efficiency gains.
“Before CoCounsel, we were manually comparing residency and filing codes across 36 states. Each jurisdiction used to take us half a week to fully review — now it takes under an hour,” said Rich Marlatt, Chief Information Officer at BLISS 1041. “We built our own templates in CoCounsel for 1041 returns across 50 states and now due to agentic research and reusable templates, we can feed client-specific factors and instantly understand how each state handles them.”
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What’s Next: Expanding Agentic Intelligence Across Domains
The launch of CoCounsel is just the beginning. Up next is Ready to Review, a tax preparation agent that leverages the GoSystem Tax Engine to not only assist with returns but to draft, adapt, and resolve issues autonomously — all while maintaining professional-grade accuracy.
Soon, agentic capabilities will extend into legal, risk, and compliance domains, with intelligent tools that support drafting, policy creation, deposition analysis, and risk assessments. These workflows will go beyond content generation, offering end-to-end orchestration of tasks, built to:
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Execute multi-step processes based on specific goals
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Seamlessly integrate with Thomson Reuters and third-party platforms
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Ensure human-in-the-loop governance for accuracy and control
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Provide traceable, transparent outputs
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Leverage custom LLMs trained by in-house experts
Thomson Reuters is not just enhancing capabilities — it is redefining what generative AI means for professionals.
Why Thomson Reuters Is Leading the Agentic AI Era
Thomson Reuters’ leadership in this next wave of AI innovation is underpinned by its unrivaled assets and infrastructure:
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Access to over 20 billion documents, 15+ petabytes of data, and 500+ trusted content sources
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A team of 4,500 subject matter experts and 180+ AI engineers working collaboratively
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A global footprint with 500,000+ customers, including 100% of the Fortune 100 and the entire U.S. federal court system
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Deep AI ecosystem integrations with OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, and Google
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A secure, enterprise-grade platform with ISO 42001 certification and zero-retention architecture
A Milestone in the Ongoing Transformation
The introduction of agentic AI represents a pivotal milestone in Thomson Reuters’ broader transformation into a global technology powerhouse.
“This is more than a product launch — it’s a clear signal of where the industry is heading, and who’s leading it,” said Wong. “As we continue to re-architect the workflows professionals rely on every day, one thing is clear: the future of work is already here — and it’s being built inside Thomson Reuters.”