Austin, Texas —Black Ore said on April 29 that its Tax Autopilot platform is now broadly available to CPA firms, following a two-year early access program that included 75 firms selected from a waiting list of nearly 4,000.
The company said the early access group included 40% of the top 20 CPA firms in the United States. Tax Autopilot is designed to automate parts of the tax-preparation process for accounting firms, particularly for complex returns that involve multiple document types and review requirements.
The broader rollout comes shortly after the April 15 tax filing deadline, a period that typically places heavy pressure on accounting professionals. Black Ore cited industry staffing constraints, including the departure of more than 300,000 accountants from the profession over the past two years and CPA exam candidates falling to a 17-year low. The company said these pressures have contributed to an estimated annual shortfall of 125 million work hours, equivalent to more than $25 billion in unmet demand.
“Tax Autopilot has proven itself across tax seasons with top CPA firms, and now it's time to scale,” said Eyal Shinar, co-founder and CEO of Black Ore. “Our customers are already seeing substantial time savings and lower costs across tens of thousands of complex returns. We're opening access to thousands more firms today to unlock the capacity, growth and client focus the profession desperately needs in this talent-short era.”
A platform built around a tax-return workflow
Black Ore said Tax Autopilot is intended to handle the full lifecycle of complex tax-return preparation, rather than simply adding AI tools to existing manual workflows.
The platform accepts documents including W-2s, 1099s, K-1s, brokerage statements and bank records in various formats. It then classifies documents, extracts data, resolves discrepancies, applies federal and state tax-code logic, prepares the return, and generates supporting workpapers for review.
The system also integrates with major tax software platforms, allowing prepared returns to move into firms’ existing workflows. Black Ore said each return is delivered for final professional review, with source-linked data, audit trails and flags for items requiring attention. CPA firm professionals remain responsible for the final sign-off.
The company said Tax Autopilot is SOC 2 Type II certified, operates in encrypted environments, and has undergone AI, privacy and security reviews.
Early access firms report time and cost reductions
According to Black Ore, firms in the early access program used Tax Autopilot across tens of thousands of returns. The company said participating firms reported more than 99% accuracy, a more than 98% autonomy rate, up to 98% time savings per preparation, and up to 80% lower costs per return.
“Before Black Ore’s Tax Autopilot, preparing a high net worth return with dozens of complex K-1s could take several days,” said Kyle Parks, leading partner at Maxwell Locke & Ritter, a top 100 CPA firm. “Now, it’s ready for review in minutes with high quality results, improving our efficiency while allowing us to maintain control over the process.”
Jeff Wong, former global chief innovation officer at EY, said the product reflects a broader shift in how large accounting firms may approach tax automation.
“Black Ore’s Tax Autopilot is what every enterprise firm struggles to build and hopes to procure – an AI-native tax platform driving significant, consistent ROI,” Wong said. “CPAs that move on this will serve more clients, at higher margins, with a fraction of the hours. The ones that don't will get left behind.”
