By now, you’ve heard all about how automation saves time. Applied to the manual processes in any industry, it takes over the tedious and time-consuming (but necessary) tasks of everyday work so employees can focus on activities that provide a greater return. In the case of business personal property tax, automation means your team members can forego data extraction and data entry work in favor of long-term strategy activities like tax planning and predictive analytics—tasks that have real impact on an organization and make your team more valuable.

If you’re part of a corporate tax department, there are plenty of resources providing information about tax issues and strategies related to real property, but few doing the same for personal property—even though personal property offers similar opportunities for tax savings. To help with strategizing on both fronts equally, this article starts by defining each term at a basic level, then highlights the differences between real and personal property that are relevant to tax practice.

If you’ve read our blog at all, you know our stance on using software to manage your team’s property tax processes: We’re all about automating commercial property tax management workflows, so you get back time for high-value tasks, like determining how to protest unfair assessments.

There’s no question about it: Artificial intelligence (AI) is reinventing the way tax professionals approach tax season. To better understand the use of artificial intelligence in tax, it’s important to know what tax bots are, how they’re beneficial to tax teams, and why some professionals are still hesitant to adopt automation technology.

If you’re still using the property tax management software you bought 15+ years ago, you might be thinking, it still works, so why switch?

If that’s the case for you, I’m glad you stopped by. Whatever tool you’re currently using almost certainly improved your team’s productivity 15 years ago, but it would probably fall short by today’s standards. Why? Because it uses outdated technology that keeps your property tax team working the same way it did one or two decades ago. Even though the software is still functional, it lacks the sophisticated tech advancements used in more modern tools—those that can actually give your team a competitive edge. Think about it this way: If you were sizing up a new software today, would the fact that it’s operational be enough to sell you on it? I’m guessing the answer would be no.

By now you’ve heard all about it: Technology is changing the way people work. That’s true across all industries and workplaces, whether it’s the floor of a manufacturing facility or the office space of an insurance company.

Property tax management is no exception. Currently, a digital transformation is underway, giving property tax teams new and better ways to provide value to their organizations, become more efficient, and spend less money. It comes at a time when organizations are under increased scrutiny to compete with emerging, often global, competitors. Those teams willing to embrace advanced tax technology tools will be better positioned to meet the challenges that lie ahead.