Baker Tilly teams with Ode & Anthropic on AI tools

Baker Tilly has launched an initiative with Ode and Anthropic to expand its use of artificial intelligence across its advisory, tax and assurance businesses. The project centres on tools intended to support staff in client work.

Under the arrangement, Ode will help the firm design and implement AI systems that reflect Baker Tilly's methodologies, knowledge and professional standards. The aim is to build governed systems for work where professional judgement remains central, rather than rely on standard automation tools or standalone productivity software.

The move places AI more directly inside the workflows of a large professional services firm at a time when advisers, accountants and auditors are weighing how far the technology can be used in complex assignments. Firms in those fields are under pressure to improve efficiency while maintaining oversight, consistency and compliance.

The initiative will span the parts of Baker Tilly's business that handle advisory, tax and assurance work. Those areas often involve detailed reviews, client-specific assessments and internal methods that firms treat as a key part of service delivery.

Ode was launched through a partnership involving Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman and a group of investors that includes Apollo Global Management, General Atlantic, GIC, Goldman Sachs, Leonard Green & Partners and Sequoia. It focuses on helping organisations move AI projects from early testing into broader operational use.

For Baker Tilly, the decision signals a preference for building systems around its own professional processes rather than adopting generic tools. That approach reflects a broader pattern across regulated and knowledge-intensive industries, where companies are trying to apply AI in ways that fit established controls and specialist practices.

Judgement focus

The work will concentrate on tasks where human judgement is still essential. In tax, advisory and audit work, that can include reviewing facts, applying rules to specific circumstances and assessing risks or exceptions that do not fit standard templates.

Standard automation has already been used widely across finance and back-office functions, but professional services groups have often been more cautious about extending those systems into client-facing assignments. The main challenge has been making AI useful without reducing the role of trained professionals or weakening internal standards.

Chris Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of Ode, said Baker Tilly was taking a firm-led approach.

"The future of professional services will be shaped by firms that successfully combine AI with deep domain expertise," Taylor said. "Baker Tilly is building AI systems around the expertise of its professionals to enhance the client experience."

Baker Tilly's leadership framed the effort as part of a wider investment in how the firm delivers complex work. The initiative is intended to strengthen how its people handle assignments that clients rely on the firm to complete accurately and consistently.

"At Baker Tilly, we are investing in AI to strengthen how our people deliver the complex, judgment-intensive work our clients trust us to do," said Eric Miles, Chief Executive Officer of Baker Tilly. "Working with Ode gives us additional technical depth and speed as we build AI capabilities around our professionals, methodologies and standards, with a focus on enhancing quality, insight and responsiveness for clients."

Firm footprint

Baker Tilly describes itself as an advisory, tax and assurance firm with operations across major regions of the US and a presence in financial centres including New York, London, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston. It is also part of Baker Tilly International, a network spanning 147 territories with 50,000 professionals and combined worldwide revenue of USD $6.8 billion.

The scale of that network highlights the size of the market now examining AI in professional services. Accounting and advisory firms have been testing generative AI and other systems for research, drafting, analysis and internal knowledge use, but moving those tools into core client service remains a more significant step.

That makes governance a central issue in deals of this kind. Firms in audit, tax and advisory work face obligations around accuracy, confidentiality, documentation and professional conduct, which can limit the usefulness of off-the-shelf systems if they are not adapted to those requirements.

By focusing on systems built around its own methods and expertise, Baker Tilly is trying to address that constraint while extending AI into parts of its business where standard software has not always met expectations.