Former IRS Commissioner Urges Tiered AI Strategy to Boost Corporate ROI

A former IRS Commissioner advises private sector firms to adopt a tiered AI implementation strategy to bridge the gap between investment and returns, citing data that only 15% of executives reported profit increases from AI integrations by late 2025. During the agency's modernization effort beginning in 2023, the IRS deployed domain-specific AI to reduce taxpayer hotline wait times from 28 minutes to three. Custom case management tools further enabled the recovery of billions in fraud and improper payments in fiscal 2024. The author recommends businesses progress through three stages—general tools, domain-specific applications, and custom solutions—to compound wins and ensure accountability for every dollar spent.