Filling out 16 tax forms with AI in about 10 minutes

I had 16 Texas franchise tax forms to fill out for my LLC. They were paper only, with no way to file them online, and every form asked for most of the same details.

That's the kind of job that eats an afternoon: find each form, download it, type the same name and address sixteen times, check each one, and keep the files straight.

How AI did it

I used two of Anthropic's tools:

1. Claude in Chrome, a browser extension that lets Claude use web pages, found each form on the state's website and downloaded it.
2. Claude Cowork, which lets Claude work with files on my computer, filled them in.

Cowork asked me for my details once: my name, address, and the handful of other fields the forms needed. Then it filled in all 16, saved them to a folder with clear filenames, and I hit print. Along the way, it explained some tax terminology I wasn't familiar with.

What I'd have expected to take an afternoon took about 10 minutes of supervision.

Not impressive, just useful

This is the use case I keep coming back to. Not AI doing something impressive, just AI doing something annoying so I don't have to.

It's also a good example of where off-the-shelf tools are enough. This was a one-time job, so there was nothing to build: the right tools, used well, did it. A lot of the value a team can get from AI starts there, which is why training is one of the things I offer.

When it happens every week, automate it

The calculation changes when the same paperwork comes back every week or every month. Then it's worth building an automation that runs on its own, with a person checking the output. Some ideas:

• New customer and vendor forms: W-9s, credit applications, and onboarding packets filled in from the details you already have on file.
• Permits and compliance paperwork: recurring filings for contractors, restaurants, or clinics, filled in from your records and queued for a signature.
• Insurance and benefits forms: claims, certificates of insurance, and enrollment forms that repeat the same customer or employee details.
• Going the other way: reading forms you receive, like intake forms, applications, or invoices, and putting the details into a spreadsheet or your own system instead of retyping them.

In each case, a person still reviews the result before anything is signed or sent. The automation just takes the retyping off their plate.