How H&R Block is using Azure OpenAI Service to bring ease to American taxpayers this season

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In 2023, we noticed generative AI usher in a wave of latest improvements, from Microsoft Copilot to the “final music” from The Beatles to serving to rural India farmers acquire simpler entry to authorities providers. These AI improvements at the moment are beginning to present up in our on a regular basis lives and have a optimistic influence for thousands and thousands of individuals around the globe.

Final week, as a part of Microsoft’s FY24 Q2 Earnings, we introduced we now have 53,000 Azure AI clients. Over one-third are new to Azure this calendar 12 months.

And we’ve nice momentum with Azure OpenAI Service, too, which turned typically accessible simply over 12 months in the past, empowering builders and organizations to construct AI purposes with OpenAI’s newest fashions (together with GPT-Four Turbo with Imaginative and prescient, fine-tuning for the foundational fashions, and DALL-E three) backed by the enterprise capabilities of our Azure cloud. We proceed to introduce new innovation with Azure OpenAI Service together with Assistants API in preview, text-to-speech capabilities, help for brand new fashions, and updates to fine-tuning API.

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Right this moment, hundreds of organizations around the globe are utilizing Azure OpenAI service to drive significant enterprise influence for individuals and society. We’re seeing elevated utilization from AI-first startups like DeepBrain, Perplexity, and SymphonyAI, in addition to the world’s greatest corporations. Over half of the Fortune 500 use Azure OpenAI right this moment, together with AT&T, Walmart, Ally Monetary, and Carmax.

Serving to taxpayers with AI Tax Help

It’s no secret that submitting taxes might be anxious, overwhelming, and time-consuming. In accordance with the IRS, the typical taxpayer spends 13 hours making ready their return. As we enter this 12 months’s tax season (the IRS formally started accepting eFiling from people on January 29), it’s particularly thrilling to see how H&R Block is leveraging the generative AI capabilities of Azure to assist ease the submitting course of for taxpayers this 12 months. 

Nearly half (46%) of the 146 million tax filers within the U.S. put together and file their very own taxes. This season, these 69 million DIYers can have the flexibility to simplify the tax preparation course of with H&R Block AI Tax Help.¹

Sound acquainted? You’ll have caught a glimpse of AI Tax Help commercials final month in the course of the NFL playoffs, or when the answer first launched in December 2023.

H&R Block AI Tax Help is a generative synthetic intelligence (GenAI) expertise that harnesses the ability of Azure OpenAI Service to assist streamline the tax preparation course of for people, the self-employed and small enterprise homeowners to file and handle their taxes confidently.

“With H&R Block AI Tax Help, we’re enhancing the DIY tax submitting expertise. By making use of generative AI instruments with our distinctive skill to supply human experience at scale, we’re taking a step ahead in innovation to assist make the tax submitting course of simpler. We’re thrilled to work with Microsoft and leverage the ability of Azure OpenAI Service to rework how Individuals do their taxes.”

– Heather Watts, Senior Vice President of Shopper Tax Merchandise, H&R Block

Leveraging information from H&R Block’s The Tax Institute and the expertise of greater than 60,000 tax professionals, H&R Block AI Tax Help helps DIY clients effectively work by way of the tax preparation course of by helping with:

Tax Data: AI Tax Help can present info on tax kinds, deductions, and credit, maximizing potential refunds and minimizing tax legal responsibility.
Tax Preparation: AI Tax Help can information people by way of questions as they put together and file their taxes, reply tax idea questions and supply navigation directions when wanted.
Tax Data: AI Tax Help can reply free-form tax-related questions, offering dynamic responses that make clear tax phrases and provides steering on particular tax guidelines or basic details about the U.S. and state tax system.
Tax Adjustments: AI Tax Help can reply questions concerning the tax code, just lately modified legal guidelines and tax insurance policies.

A screen shot of an H&R Block customer’s experience using AI Tax Assist

“H&R Block has constructed a long-standing partnership with Microsoft beginning with migration to Azure as part of our broader digital transformation. As we thought-about platform companions for constructing the AI Tax Help and AI Platforms extra broadly, we listed closely on speed-to-market whereas making certain we did it safely, responsibly, and honoring the belief our shoppers place in our model every single day. The capabilities of Azure OpenAI Service to allow accountable deployment of AI have been essential in serving to construct confidence on this new resolution and allowed us to deploy this new know-how at scale to our shoppers early in our journey.”

– Alan Lowden, Chief Data Officer, H&R Block

Driving enterprise influence with Azure AI

Like H&R Block, organizations together with AT&T, Inflection AI, PwC, Siemens and Volvo are utilizing Azure AI to reimagine buyer experiences, take away friction in business-critical processes to assist end-users and workers focus their time and power on priceless work.

Whether or not constructing a copilot, a chatbot, or a inventive assistant, companies are benefiting from Azure AI’s mannequin selection, flexibility and multimodal capabilities by way of Azure AI Studio to innovate sooner and extra responsibly throughout a spread of numerous providers together with schooling, monetary providers, healthcare, manufacturing, and threat administration.

Our dedication to accountable AI

With Accountable AI instruments in Azure, Microsoft is empowering organizations to construct the subsequent era of AI apps safely and responsibly. Azure AI Content material Security is a state-of-the artwork AI system that helps organizations hold AI-generated content material secure and create higher on-line experiences for everybody. Prospects—from startup to enterprise—are making use of the capabilities of Azure AI Content material Security to social media, schooling and worker engagement situations to assist assemble AI programs that operationalize equity, privateness, safety, and different accountable AI ideas.