How AI may reshape professional services teams

David predicts a 'torpedo' pyramid: fewer juniors needed as AI agents handle substantive junior work.

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In this episode of the AI Agents Podcast, host Demetri Panici sits down with David Wong, Chief Product Officer at Thomson Reuters, to explore how AI agents are starting to reshape legal, tax, audit, and other professional services industries.

They discuss how Thomson Reuters evolved far beyond its well-known news brand into a software and research powerhouse for lawyers, accountants, tax professionals, and risk teams — and why AI is now becoming one of the biggest technological shifts those industries have ever seen.

David shares his journey from engineering, consulting, and ad systems into leading product at Thomson Reuters, along with how his team tested early GPT models on legal research years ago and watched the technology go from failing badly to becoming good enough for serious professional use cases.

Demetri and David also break down how AI can help with legal research, tax preparation, compliance work, and document-heavy workflows, why tax is such a strong fit for AI systems, and how the future of professional services may involve smaller teams supported by highly capable AI agents.

This episode is a must-watch for anyone interested in AI agents, legal tech, tax automation, enterprise workflows, and the future of knowledge work — especially if you want to understand how AI is beginning to transform industries built on expertise, research, and structured judgment.

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00:52 – Meet David Wong, Chief Product Officer at Thomson Reuters

01:49 – David’s background and journey into product leadership

03:24 – What Thomson Reuters actually does beyond news

06:02 – Early exposure to AI and machine learning

08:39 – Testing GPT-3 on legal research years before the boom

10:20 – Where AI helps in legal research and written work

13:55 – How AI applies to tax preparation and compliance

24:00 – Teaching AI to use tools instead of “doing the math”

33:48 – How AI could flatten team structures in professional services

47:23 – Where to learn more about Thomson Reuters and CoCounsel

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