Orly Mazur (SMU), Modernizing the IRS in the Age of AI, 45 Va. Tax Rev. 182 (2025):

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers powerful tools for modernizing tax administration, from automating audits and improving fraud detection to enhancing taxpayer services. But if deployed prematurely, AI risks entrenching the very flaws it aims to fix. The Internal Revenue Service remains burdened by outdated infrastructure, fragmented data systems, limited transparency, and enforcement disparities. Without foundational reform, AI will not increase efficiency or equity. Instead, it will amplify structural shortcomings and obscure accountability. This article argues that the Internal Revenue Service cannot responsibly adopt AI without first addressing its systemic weaknesses in governance, data infrastructure, and legal oversight. Drawing on lessons from prior modernization failures, this article demonstrates that piecemeal upgrades and underfunded initiatives have repeatedly stalled progress. It further contends that recent efforts to defund the Internal Revenue Service threaten to sabotage the very reforms necessary to support responsible, effective automation. 

Thus, rather than viewing AI as a shortcut to reform, this article makes the case for a deliberate, sequenced approach: modernization first, AI second. Through institutional restructuring, sustained investment, and the development of transparent and accountable data practices, the Internal Revenue Service can build the foundation needed for AI to serve, not subvert, fair, effective, and efficient tax administration. Ultimately, the future of AI in tax administration depends not on how fast it is adopted, but on how responsibly it is implemented.

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