Accountants and financial advisers now have access to instant and statute-compliant tax guidance at the touch of a button thanks to Dublin-based artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Leapifai.

The company’s novel AI-powered tax copilot platform offers accountants and financial advisers what founder and CEO Dr Beibei Flynn describes as “an extra pair of hands” when dealing with complex and constantly changing tax regulations.

“Our AI-native tax agent delivers instant and statutory-compliant tax clarity and practical guidance that enables accountants to react quickly to client queries,” says Flynn.

At the foundation of the Leapifai platform is a vast database which brings together thousands of documents containing information on Irish tax law and regulations, Revenue guidance, Tax Appeals Commission cases, tax-related court cases and more.

Users can ask natural language questions and Leapifai’s tax copilot will search the database, filtering out and summarising the most relevant sections and paragraphs.

Importantly, each response incorporates links to references and citations, allowing users to verify accuracy.

“It works in the same way as a tax expert conducts research but delivers results very rapidly by leveraging the power of technology,” says Flynn.

“This allows professionals to free up time to spend with their clients. It places human interactions, rather than paperwork, at the centre of professional services.”

Leapifai: the story so far

The Leapifai story began 15 years ago when Flynn graduated with a PhD in machine learning from Maynooth University in Co. Kildare, going on to work for both EY Ireland and Accenture.

While at Accenture, Flynn was involved in the development of machine learning models for the Revenue Commissioners.

This experience provided insight into the communication gap that can exist between technology professionals and the clients they serve.

“When I talked to the users, I found we were speaking in different languages,” Flynn explains.

“We think we are doing something great, but sometimes they struggle to see its value. You have to speak your user’s language, not your own. If you don’t really know about tax and just rely on technology, for example, no technology you build can really solve problems for customers.”

This realisation led Flynn to train as a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) with the Irish Tax Institute.

“My employer at the time, Accenture, said they would sponsor me to study for the tax qualification. I thought, ‘okay, why not?’”

Thus began close to seven years of relentless study for Flynn, who found herself sacrificing weekends and holidays to gain her qualification.

“It was not an enjoyable journey, but I am very grateful to have made it through, and I am delighted now that I made the decision to do the programme,” Flynn says. “At the time, I didn’t know where it would go. I just wanted to do my job better.”

Evolution of machine learning

The qualification provided Flynn with the knowledge she would need to develop the Leapifai platform, but when she qualified as a CTA in 2017, the technology wasn’t quite ready.

This changed in 2023 with the launch of the trial version of ChatGPT, the AI chat bot developed by OpenAI in the US. “I signed up to ChatGPT and when I tested the results, I realised how good this thing had become,” Flynn recalls.

“It wasn’t machine learning anymore. It had achieved a different level of maturity—not as mature as it is today but significantly improved. I realised the use cases we hadn’t been able to do previously were now possible.”

This was the all-important “aha moment” in Leapifai’s genesis, but there was still work to do.

“ChatGPT is very generic—it’s not a tax specialist but I could see that it had become technically possible to build a tax specialist AI product,” Flynn says.

“I said, ‘why not give it a go?’ and quit my job because I knew how very time-consuming it would be to build a product. It’s not easy when you first start.”

Flynn signed up for the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers entrepreneur development programme.

“I did it to learn about all aspects of a new business— not just one stream, the full spectrum. It’s a good programme.”

Leapifai also participated in the AI Ecosystem Accelerator, delivered by NovaUCD, University College Dublin’s research and innovation hub, in partnership with national AI centre CeADAR.

The programme is designed to support entrepreneurs developing disruptive AI solutions for various industries.

“I knew what was needed. The challenge, as everyone knows, is that tax is very complex and ever-changing,” Flynn explains.

“Accountants are not tax specialists. Their areas of expertise include audit, bookkeeping and the financial reporting skills needed to meet regulatory requirements.

“So, when dealing with tax questions, they need clarity quickly—and they rarely have time to spend on heavy tax research. This is the problem I set out to address, and I could see AI’s capability to solve it.”

Leapifai provides accountants with instant practical and statutory-compliant tax guidance.

“When you’re logged into the platform, you can ask the questions in any form you want and you get very structured answers,” Flynn says.

“WE WANT TO MAKE THE IRISH PRODUCT AS GOOD AS IT CAN BE AND THEN WE CAN JUMP INTO THE UK AND OTHER MARKETS. WE ALSO WANT TO BRING HIGH-END EMPLOYMENT TO IRELAND. THAT’S THE PLAN FOR THE FUTURE”

The process begins with the AI interpreting the question. “It can search thousands of documents behind the scenes, some containing over 100 pages, to fish out the relevant paragraphs and sections,” Flynn explains.

“It works like a tax adviser, summarising the information in plain English rather than tax terminology.”

The platform covers all major Irish tax categories, including personal tax, VAT, corporation tax, capital gains tax and stamp duty.

To keep pace with legislative and regulatory changes, it is updated monthly and more frequently when the need arises.

“We have automated the process,” Flynn says, “We keep listening to the different authorities and when they publish something, we integrate this information. We can refresh the whole system in a few hours. Essentially, we can update it on daily basis if we need to.”

New developments and future plans

Market reaction since Leapifai’s October 2025 launch has been positive and Flynn is responding to feedback with the addition of new features designed to further strengthen the Leapifai offering.

These new features include a knowledge hub featuring responses to frequently asked questions, prepared by “human” tax advisers with nuances that might be missed by AI when preparing responses to complex case queries.

The platform now also incorporates summaries of Tax Appeals Commission judgements. “These judgements are very detailed and we summarise them, give the legal reasoning behind them and explain the legal consequences so that our customers can quickly see what these cases might mean for them,” Flynn explains.

Leapifai has raised €250,000 in start-up funding to date from private investors as well as €100,000 from the Enterprise Ireland Pre-Seed Start Fund.

“We are now looking to raise another €500,000 to support further product development and marketing, and expand into the UK market,” says Flynn.

“We want to bring the product to different jurisdictions, but the complexities involved for even one jurisdiction means this will take time. We want to make the Irish product as good as it can be and then we can jump into the UK and other markets. We also want to bring high-end employment to Ireland. That’s the plan for the future.”