Manila: The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is developing an artificial intelligence-powered tax assistance tool with funding support from Ayala Corporation. The tool, called Terry The Tax AI Assistant, will help BIR personnel retrieve, cross-reference, and analyze tax regulations, rulings, issuances, and other tax materials faster and more efficiently.
According to Philippines News Agency, Ayala Corporation will work with the BIR to set up the program at no cost to the government, while bureau personnel will participate in its testing stage. The BIR on Thursday said the project will build a structured and searchable knowledge base and develop citation-based, source-grounded responses using official BIR references.
BIR Commissioner Charlito Martin Mendoza stated, "If technology can do more of that retrieval and cross-referencing, our revenuers can spend more of their time examining what the authorities mean, resolving difficult issues, and carrying reforms through." He further emphasized that while technology can help assemble the basis for a decision, the judgment and responsibility for acting on it remain solely with the BIR.
Mendoza signed the memorandum of understanding formalizing the BIR-Ayala Corporation partnership on August 25. Ayala Corporation Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Group Head Karl Kendrick Chua, who signed the deal, expressed Ayala Corporation's commitment to helping public institutions become more future-ready. Chua remarked that through Terry, the Tax AI Assistant, Ayala aims to help public servants work efficiently, respond to taxpayers with clarity and consistency, and deliver faster, more accessible services.
The BIR mentioned that Terry The Tax AI Assistant project supports the Digital and Data Transformation and Employee Empowerment pillars of BIR DARES, which aims to maximize technology to improve the quality and speed of BIR's work. Mendoza added, "The real value of this partnership is not only the tool we will have at the end, but the capability we build within the BIR to understand the technology and continue developing it as our needs evolve."
