With unmatched tax expertise and technology innovation, Avalara is redefining compliance with a fleet of intelligent agents that initiate and execute tasks

DURHAM, N.C., Sept. 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Avalara, Inc. today unveiled Agentic Tax and Compliance™, a new class of AI agents that initiate and execute compliance workflows from start to finish. Launching October 2025, these intelligent agents deliver accuracy, scale, and speed across the entire compliance lifecycle.

Building on its leadership in tax compliance, Avalara is launching the first platform for Agentic Tax and Compliance™. Powered by the ALFA framework (Avalara LLM framework for agentic applications), Avalara's platform combines trusted content, specialized language models, agentic middleware, and scalable infrastructure to deliver real-time compliance execution.

"The most trusted AI breakthroughs are purpose-built," said Scott McFarlane, CEO and Co-Founder of Avalara. "Just as Harvey AI transformed legal workflows and PathAI redefined diagnostics, Avalara is now setting the standard as the domain-specialized leader in agentic tax and compliance."

Where others build copilots, Avalara builds AI agents
Avalara's AI agents go beyond assisting to doing the work: observing, advising, and executing while embedded directly into the environments where work happens. From ERP to ecommerce systems, Avalara's agents are doing the work that once required entire departments of professionals.

By combining AI agents, Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, private LLMs, and proprietary domain-specific small language models (SLMs), all encompassed in the proprietary ALFA framework, Avalara is redefining what it means to automate tax and regulatory processes.

Agentic Compliance: A New Operating Model
Avalara pioneered the concept of agentic compliance, the idea that compliance should not be bolted on but built in, powered by intelligent AI agents that repeatedly:

• Integrate with business systems
• Observe data, workflows, and user behavior
• Advise on actions, risk exposure, and compliance obligations
• Execute calculations, filings, validations, and document classification

This shift transforms compliance from a manual burden into a more seamless, scalable, and intelligent process that is always on, reliably repeatable, and executed by AI agents.

Agentic Returns in Action
For example, a Returns AI agent can ingest transaction data, invoke Avalara's headless Returns APIs, apply the appropriate forms and jurisdictional logic, and, upon approval, file on behalf of the client. The result is a digital compliance professional who works 24/7 and stays current with the latest rules and jurisdictions, while delivering scalability, performance, and peace of mind.

From Cloud Disruption to Agentic Scale
Avalara was born in the cloud and brought the first true SaaS model to tax automation, an industry previously defined by on-premises software and manual processes. This transformation was made possible by the rise of broadband internet, which unlocked the reach, scale, and speed required to deliver real-time compliance services.

Now Avalara is executing its next major disruption: agentic tax and compliance. This shift is only possible because Avalara is a technology company that understands tax, not the other way around. The company builds platforms instead of one-off tools. With the same clarity of vision that guided Avalara's first disruption, the company is once again leading the market toward a new operating model.

Avalara's agentic architecture is powered by an even stronger foundation: a resilient active-active, multi-cloud deployment spanning multiple geographies and hyperscalers such as AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI. It is horizontally scalable and architected to support every transaction in the world, highly resilient, and performant—averaging 15 millisecond response times due to our distributed design.

The company's history of ubiquity, evident in 1,400+ signed partner integrations and seamless integrations with virtually every ERP, ecommerce system, POS system, and back-office platform, now extends into the agentic world. Wherever a company's agents live, Avalara's AI agents can meet them. In applications, inboxes, folders, workflows, or data streams, Avalara's compliance layer travels to where work happens.

"Compliance has always been complex and resource intensive, and Avalara has worked for years to make it easier for businesses of all sizes," said Jayme Fishman, EVP, Chief Strategy and Product Officer at Avalara. "Now, we're delivering the first-ever digital compliance professionals, AI agents that advise and execute at global scale, making it even easier to handle the most onerous and time-consuming tasks—so businesses can move faster and focus on growth."

Have Your Agent Call Our Agent™
Agentic compliance becomes truly powerful when agents from different systems can interact. Avalara's AI agents are designed to seamlessly collaborate with other agents within an enterprise, whether they originate from an ERP, POS, or ecommerce system to complete tax and compliance tasks with speed and precision. This agent-to-agent interoperability turns Avalara into a force multiplier across an enterprise's agentic flows.

Avalara's AI agents are designed to be portable and operate where work happens. Productivity tools, development environments, file storage systems, and even user devices can connect directly to Avalara's agents to validate taxes, classify products, initiate registrations, or file jurisdictional forms. In an agentic world, Avalara does not wait for data. It meets it at the source, acts on it, and ensures greater compliance at the moment of need. It is the foundation of Avalara's new operating model: Have your agent call our agent.

Whether it is preparing VAT returns in Europe, handling marketplace facilitator rules in the U.S., remitting excise tax in Brazil, or validating licenses in Canada, Avalara provides the only truly agentic infrastructure that spans the full compliance spectrum.

Small Language Models Supercharged by Best-in-Class Compliance Content
Avalara has leveraged its best-in-class content repository to train its own small language models (SLMs), using the most robust and trusted compliance content in the world. These SLMs are designed to complement private LLMs by embedding deep domain knowledge into scalable, intelligent execution. The company's models never ingest or learn from untrusted content, helping to ensure outputs are compliant and accurate to drive agentic compliance.

Why Avalara's Agentic Stack Is Built Differently
Avalara's ALFA powers all of Avalara's AI features by combining:

• Enterprise LLMs with data isolation from Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI
• Proprietary SLMs tuned on billions of compliance data points
• Prompt libraries, guardrails, reasoning, actions, RAG databases, third-party agentic frameworks, APIs, SDKs
• An extensible agentic architecture

Developers can access Avalara's MCP servers today at https://developer.avalara.com/.

A More Intuitive Experience Across the Portfolio
Avalara has always been the most intuitive platform in tax compliance, and agentic automation makes it even simpler. Instead of logging in or navigating screens, customers can just ask an AI agent to do the work. There is nothing new to learn, just natural, seamless execution. From returns to tax calculations to certificate validations, agents make even the hardest tasks virtually effortless.

Avalara has applied agentic AI to the broadest set of tax and compliance solutions in the industry, including Avalara AvaTax, Avalara AvaTax for Accounts Payable, Avalara Returns, VAT Returns & Reporting, Avalara E-Invoicing and Live Reporting, Avalara Exemption Certificate Management, Avalara Business Licenses, Avalara Tax Research, Item Classification, Avalara Cross-Border, Tariff Code Classification, Avalara 1099 & W9, and Avalara Property Tax. As each product is reimagined through the agentic lens, customers can expect more automation, less friction, and a consistent experience powered by Avalara's growing library of intelligent AI agents.

Built for Where Compliance Is Headed
Avalara is going beyond keeping up with mandates, the company is shaping what comes next. With open networks, sandbox testing environments, low-code partner integration, and the ability to run active-active across all major clouds, Avalara is positioned as the only AI compliance layer that is:

• Embedded and interoperable across thousands of systems
• Always on, always compliant
• Designed for developers, operators, and executives alike

The company is unifying deep domain content, agentic infrastructure, and execution-ready models to scale intelligent automation across every category of compliance.

To learn more about Avalara's AI breakthroughs, visit Avalara.com/ai.

About Avalara
Avalara is the agentic tax and compliance leader. For more than two decades, Avalara has developed one of the most expansive libraries of tax content and integrations in the industry, supporting over 43,000 businesses and government entities across more than 75 countries. The company's purpose-built AI agents automate end-to-end compliance processes with greater precision, from tax calculations and return filings to exemption certificate management and beyond. For more information, visit Avalara.com.

SOURCE Avalara, Inc.

Newly published study shows how much time and money businesses saved with Avalara including achieving significant ROI with a less than 6-month payback period, all while decreasing tax liabilities and realizing efficiencies with audit prep

SEATTLE, WA — February 14, 2024 — Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation for businesses of all sizes, today released a new Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study to help businesses experience the significant time and cost-savings provided by Avalara’s software solutions for tax automation and compliance. 

To read the 2024 TEI study visit avalara.com.

Avalara commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct an independent study of the total economic impact of Avalara. The research included an in-depth look at both quantifiable and more subjective benefits organizations report by leveraging Avalara for sales tax calculations, tax returns, exemption certificate management (ECM), and more. A composite organization, based on six  businesses with experience using Avalara, achieved a three-year 153% ROI with a payback period of less than six months, and a net present value of $465,000, after employing Avalara and moving away from manual tax compliance management and other legacy systems.

“Avalara’s tax compliance platform provides meaningful ROI for businesses that rely on our solutions to eliminate manual tax and compliance processes,” said Liz Armbruester, EVP of Customer and Compliance Operations at Avalara. “These new independent study results showcase what tens of thousands of our customers already know with Avalara – that tax compliance automation can significantly decrease the time, cost, and other resource burdens of tax on businesses, while also improving their overall compliance and operational efficiency.”

Prior to Avalara, the businesses analyzed for this TEI study managed tax compliance processes manually which was slow and more prone to errors.  Each business faced even more challenges leveraging legacy systems such as compliance risk, as well as insufficient tracking and storage of tax documents, which put unnecessary strain and burden on employees. With a need for a digital modern tax compliance solution that would drive efficiencies, the businesses interviewed for the TEI study leveraged Avalara and saw measurable results including:

• Time savings across tax compliance requirements: Businesses streamlined the process of  managing, preparing, and filing tax returns by 85% — saving 510 hours annually. Additionally, businesses saved 416 hours every year managing exemption certificates and 34 hours on preparation time per audit. Businesses also saved 384 hours annually, which had been previously spent on researching tax rates and laws. 
• Cost savings across tax compliance requirements: Similar to time savings, businesses saved more than $83,000 on tax return management over three years. Additionally, businesses saved $96,000 on exemption certificate management, and $210,000 on audit preparation over the same three-year period. Businesses also saved $150,000 annually that would otherwise be spent on third-party experts.
• Unquantified benefits: Businesses reported additional value from Avalara, including decreased sales tax liabilities, reduced shipping errors, enhanced confidence in tax compliance, improved confidence among customers, and more. 

After the investment in Avalara, businesses shared they were able to improve their compliance with tax laws and requirements, leading to improved confidence and lower risk of additional costs applied due to non-compliance. 

According to a senior tax director at a manufacturer: ““When I’m not on Avalara, we’re on a good day only 25% to 30% compliant. And when you get on Avalara, you’re probably 95% to 100% compliant. That’s the big difference to me.”

Other Avalara customers report significant savings

“Avalara keeps us in compliance with the ever-changing tax rules. States continue to make changes and Avalara keeps us informed and up to date on these changes. Having them as part of our team gives us confidence in how we are doing business," said Kurt Toliver, CFO at Asurvio, LP​.

"Avalara products, encompassing Cert Capture, AvaTax, and Avalara Returns, have not only spared us the need for an additional full-time employee but have also streamlined our sales tax audit process, saving us countless hours,” said Julia Gilroy, Manager, Accounting Services at Emser Tile, LLC. 

"Avalara significantly aids my company in streamlining the calculation, filing, and payment of sales taxes in an efficient manner. It simplifies the entire process by automatically calculating the estimated amounts owed and electronically filing our sales tax returns. AvaTax also helps us stay informed about sales tax rates and tax laws in various locations, enhancing our compliance with local regulations to a great extent,” said Emma McClellan, Senior Tax Accountant at EquipmentShare. 

Avalara solves tax compliance for more than 41,000 businesses around the world. To learn more about how Avalara can automate your tax compliance requirements, please visit avalara.com.

About Avalara

Avalara makes tax compliance faster, easier, more accurate, and more reliable for 41,000+ business and government customers in over 75 countries. Tax compliance automation software solutions from Avalara leverage 1,200+ signed partner integrations across leading ecommerce, ERP, and other billing systems to power tax calculations, document management, tax return filing, and tax content access. Visit avalara.com to improve your compliance journey.

TEI Framework and Methodology

This study is a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Avalara and results are based on a composite organization. From the information provided in the interviews, Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for those organizations considering an investment in Avalara. The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep approach to evaluate the impact that Avalara can have on an organization.

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