Let’s chat about how AI is shaking up tax and accounting—and specifically, how three rising stars—Filed, Black Ore, and Basis—are rewriting the rules of the game.
Why AI Makes Tax Filing Smarter, Quicker & Cheaper
Think about tax season: sorting documents, plugging numbers into tax forms, and juggling multiple software platforms. It’s tedious, slow, and oh-so-expensive in time and staffing. Enter AI. These tools can read documents, auto-fill tax forms, flag weird entries, and let accountants focus on meaningful, strategic work. The result? Faster turnaround, fewer errors, and lower costs per return—exactly what firms desperately need right now.
Meet the Players: Filed, Black Ore & Basis
Yes, you’ve got Filed, Black Ore, and Basis leading the charge—but there are also plenty of niche AI tools tackling everything from bookkeeping bots to consumer tax helpers. Still, these three stand out for targeting accounting firms (CPAs=Certified Public Accountants) with AI-power.
Filed
- Incorporated: 2022
- Funding: $17.2M in May 2025, raised from Northzone, Day One Ventures, Neo
- Scope & Focus: Full tax-prep automation—think end-to-end return work
- Workflow: Built around CPA tax workflows; fits into firms’ existing systems
- Human Oversight: AI does the grunt work; accountants review flagged items
- Performance: Firms can handle up to 3× as many returns with the same team
- Best For: Mid-size to large CPA firms that want to ramp up tax output without hiring more people
Black Ore
- Incorporated: 2022
- Funding: A massive $60M raise in November 2023 led by a16z and Oak HC/FT GlobeNewswireFinTech Futures
- Scope & Focus: Narrowed—focuses solely on 1040 tax automation (that’s the main U.S. individual income tax form)
- Workflow: Automates individual return prep from start to finish
- Human Oversight: Minimal—designed to move returns quickly from preparer straight to reviewer
- Performance: Claims 90% time savings and 5× ROI
- Best For: Firms swamped with 1040 forms—solo practitioners to Top-100 firms—who need serious speed and efficiency
Basis
- Incorporated: 2023
- Funding: $34M Series A in December 2024, led by Khosla Ventures
- Scope & Focus: Broad—AI agents that support general accounting workflows, including tax, bookkeeping, client engagements
- Workflow: Highly customizable AI that learns firm-specific processes
- Human Oversight: Accountants supervise and review what AI agents do
- Performance: Early users report about 30% time saved
- Best For: Firms looking to modernize across the board—not just tax prep, but entire accounting workflows
In one crisp sentence: Filed is all about tax-prep automation; Black Ore is laser-focused on individual 1040 returns; and Basis aims to be your general AI co-worker for everything in the accounting office—so each naturally suits different client types.
Who’s Most Likely to Win the AI Tax Race?
In the near term, my money’s on Filed. It’s focused, deeply integrated, and solves a real crunch during tax season. But Black Ore shines if you’re buried in 1040s and need maximum speed. And Black Ore has larger funding and had an earlier start and could decide to go broader. And Basis has promise for firms that want a full AI assistant across multiple accounting tasks.
But Wait—Big Tech Is Knocking
This isn’t just startup drama; the giants are circling too. Thomson Reuters has been scooping up AI tax tools. In July 2025, OpenAI‘s consulting arm teamed up with PwC for custom tools. Intuit is stuffing more AI into TurboTax and QuickBooks. And we all know Microsoft, Google, AWS, and OpenAI are power players in the LLM space—ripe to bake tax logic into broader AI platforms that accountants might already use.
The Elephant in the Room: Can Niche AI Startups Last?
Here’s a question: Can these niche startups stay independent when Big Tech is queuing up to eat their lunch? Verticals like tax prep are shiny targets—tick enough boxes, and they’ll get acquired, copied, or outclassed. Sure, being focused helps you go fast and build tailored value. But without scale, deep pockets, or distribution power, even the smartest specialist is vulnerable when giants can just infuse their platforms with smarter LLMs and wider integration.
So it makes me wonder—are we cheering for Filed, Black Ore, or Basis to win the niche race? Or are we watching a small victory lap on the way to inevitable consolidation — not just within “AI tax” but in areas such as cybersecurity and automated coding (vibe coding), and much more?