What are AI agents and why is everyone talking about them?

AI agents will deliver a ‘wow’ moment like your first experience of the iPod or iPhone or the first email you thumbed-out via Blackberry in the late noughties (at least everyone reading knows what an iPhone is).

However, the experience will be different with the AI agent. Instead of the new tool being for enjoyment, communication, or a clear aid to make you more efficient in your job, this ‘wow’ moment will be coupled with the thought:

I can see the time-consuming work taken care of, and that’s a game changer!

Once AI agents mature and become embedded in the industry, the way work gets done in accounting firms will evolve. Here’s where AI agents can make a real difference in your day-to-day work.

AI agents bring us closer to the original promise of AI

If you’ve used platforms like Elfworks to summarise trust deeds or research tax questions or tools like ChatGPT or Copilot to redraft emails, you already know how useful AI can be. What’s been missing is the ability to bring all of this together into a single, end-to-end process.

AI agents connect everything into a seamless flow of work. Rather than a single chat box or prompt, they bring together multiple tools to complete entire workflows, not just individual tasks.

The key thing is that you remain in control at every step — guiding decisions, reviewing outputs and approving key actions, while the agent handles the execution. Think of it as a highly capable assistant, not an autonomous decision-maker.

For accountants, the potential is significant. Imagine an assistant that not only summarises a client email and flags further points for clarification but identifies the issues, researches the law, prepares a draft email or file note and saves the draft in the right folder, and then alerts the right team members.

That’s an AI agent in practice – supporting a workflow from start to finish.

Scenario: Dividend planning and director’s loan offset

A trading company closes the year with a taxable profit. The director has an increasing director’s debit loan balance for the same year. The company, owned by a shareholder trust, plans to declare and pay a dividend to the trust, after which the trust will distribute funds back to the director and the director will offset that distribution against their outstanding loan balance.

You open a simple chat interface with your AI agent, explain the scenario and outline what you would like to achieve (i.e. state your goals). Your input could be:

Client X needs to offset the 2025 company dividend against director Div 7A loan, create all the docs and minimise tax along the way…

The Agent approach (with the human-in-the-loop)

After reading your wishes, the agent gets to work while keeping the human-in-the-loop (HITL). HITL simply means you stay in control,  reviewing, guiding and approving key steps, while the agent handles the execution. This is what happens under the hood….

• Data ingestion and validation

o   The agent imports client X year-end trial balance, director’s loan ledger, validates balances, shareholder register, trust deed and company constitution.

o   Identify any unusual entries, flag missing supporting documents for your review (HITL).

• Financial analysis and calculations

o   Calculate distributable profits and maximum safe dividend given liquidity and solvency tests per Corporations Law

o   Compute the options for dividend amount, present options for your review and approval (HITL).

o   Estimate tax consequences for company, trust and director (e.g., dividend taxation, franking credits, withholding where applicable).

o   Confirm ability to frank dividend and the rate

o   Confirm ability (HITL) whether an interim distribution can be made from trust to lower Div 7A balance early in the year – if deed allows.

• Compliance checks and risk flags

o   Run automatic solvency tests (company can pay debts as they fall due).

o   Verify trust deed allows receipt and distribution of dividends in the proposed manner.

o   Flag compliance risks (related-party transactions, improper distributions, potential breach of director duties) and propose mitigations (HITL).

• Document generation (drafting)

o   Draft board minutes approving the dividend (resolution wording, date of declaration, payment date).

o   Prepare dividend statement/notification to shareholders (trust).

o   Draft a formal resolution documenting the trust’s distribution to the director and offset instruction against Director loan for agreed amount (HITL).

o   Produce an entry-ready journal package to record all transactions.

• Ledger update and bookkeeping instructions

o   Produce precise ledger postings for company books.

o   Generate entries for the director’s loan ledger.

o   Create reconciliations and a post-transaction balance sheet snapshot for HITL review.

• Notifications and communications

o   Draft emails and cover letters for the company secretary, trustee, director and accountant and trust directors confirming actions taken, dates, and required signatures.

• Audit trail and record-keeping

o   Compile a timestamped package with source files, calculation worksheets, all drafted documents, and an audit log of decisions and approvals.

o   Export files in formats suitable for filing/archiving.

• Escalation and HITL controls

o   Automatically route flagged items (e.g., potential director duty breaches, ambiguous trust terms).

o   Require your approval before finalising (HITL) board minute adoption, trust distribution resolutions and payment/offset instruction.

As you can see, you stay in control the whole way through. The result isn’t automation replacing your role, it’s a system that prepares, checks and organises the work so you can focus on judgement, advice and client outcomes.

Introducing AI agents to Elfworks

Our first accounting agent will be ready in April 2026.

If you’d like to see how this works on real client scenarios, and where it can save time in your day-to-day work, you can experience it as part of your free subscription.

Trial Elfworks: info@elfworks.ai

Elfworks is the most accurate AI Tax platform in Australia, designed to transform the way accounting firms work. By harnessing multiple enterprise-grade AI models and over 70,000 Australian tax documents, including legislation, case law, ATO rulings, and private guidance, Elfworks delivers fast, reliable, and bias-free advice. The platform streamlines research, automates routine tasks, and builds firm-wide knowledge through hyper-personalised CPD, freeing accountants to focus on high-value client work while ensuring compliance and quality at every step.

Trusted by over 300 Australian accounting firms, Elfworks turns complex workflows into efficient, accurate, and profitable processes.