Wolters Kluwer Tax Accounting is leveraging Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant to add voice-enabled search to its CCH AnswerConnect tax research product.

CCH AnswerConnect customers who are using Microsoft Windows 10 can use the Cortana voice assistant to verbally ask CCH AnswerConnect Tax Assistant a federal tax question. Cortana will then either read the answer back or automatically run a search to find the best matches to the question. That way, tax professionals can get the answers they are seeking without leaving a tax return, spreadsheet or document, making the workflow more efficient and productive.

“We collaborate closely with customers and witnessed first-hand how professionals call out questions to colleagues across a room,” said Wolters Kluwer Tax Accounting North America CEO Jason Marx in a statement last week when the feature was announced at the AICPA’s Engage conference. “Enhancing CCH AnswerConnect with voice-enabled technology is a natural way to augment technology based on how professionals really work.”

Like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana technology helps users interact with computers, phones, tablets and other devices by giving voice commands rather than typing on a keyboard. Wolters Kluwer introduced CCH AnswerConnect last year to provide an alternative to traditional tax research products by giving users an option to access answers by typing in tax-related questions. The new integration with Cortana allows them to use voice queries as well.