Verito and NATP Launch AI and Cybersecurity Curriculum for Tax Professionals

ORLANDO, Fla. — Verito, a provider of cloud hosting and AI solutions, and the National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP) announced on May 20 the launch of a new educational curriculum designed to equip tax professionals with skills in AI governance and cybersecurity. The program is now available to the more than 23,000 members of the NATP, addressing a growing need for formal training as artificial intelligence tools become more prevalent in the tax and accounting industries. The launch of this curriculum is a necessary and timely response to the dual-edged sword of AI in professional services. While these tools offer efficiency gains, they also introduce significant, often underestimated, compliance and security risks that can impact both the professional and their clients. The new curriculum focuses on three core areas: AI governance, data protection, and modern compliance. It aims to provide a structured educational framework for tax preparers who are increasingly using AI for tasks ranging from data analysis and document summarization to client communication. The partnership seeks to bridge a critical knowledge gap, ensuring that practitioners can leverage AI's benefits while mitigating its considerable risks. This initiative arrives as federal regulators, particularly the Internal Revenue Service, intensify their focus on data security within the tax preparation community. Tax professionals are legally obligated under federal law, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) of 1999, to protect their clients' sensitive personal and financial information. The FTC's Safeguards Rule, which implements the GLBA, explicitly requires financial institutions—a category that includes professional tax preparers—to develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive written information security plan. Failure to comply can result in significant penalties, but more importantly, it exposes clients to the risk of data theft and fraud. The IRS has long emphasized its “Security Six” measures, a list of critical security steps that all tax professionals should take. These include using antivirus software, firewalls, two-factor authentication, data backup, drive encryption, and maintaining a written data security plan. The new Verito-NATP curriculum is designed to build upon these fundamentals, adapting them for the unique challenges posed by AI. In our experience, many small and mid-sized businesses don't fully scrutinize the technology practices of their external advisors, assuming compliance is a given. This is a dangerous assumption. A tax professional's failure to implement proper AI governance can directly expose a business to data breaches and flawed financial reporting. This is why we view the selection of tech-competent advisors as a core component of a company's overall financial risk management strategy. Business owners must ask pointed questions about how their data is being handled in an AI-driven environment. For guidance on assessing these and other operational risks, business leaders can contact C&S Finance Group LLC at csfinancegroup.com. Chris Ragain, a Partner at Verito, stated in the announcement that the rapid adoption of public AI tools by professionals without formal training presents “significant risks to their firms and their clients.” He emphasized the “critical need for structured AI education that provides a baseline understanding of the technology, its inherent risks, and the governance required for safe implementation.” One of the primary concerns is the potential for confidential client data to be entered into public, unsecured generative AI platforms. Doing so can lead to that data being absorbed into the model's training set, making it potentially accessible to other users and creating a massive data breach. Furthermore, AI models are known to “hallucinate,” or generate confident-sounding but factually incorrect information, which could lead to inaccurate tax filings and costly audits for clients. Scott Artman, Executive Director of NATP, noted that the association is committed to providing its members with the necessary resources to “excel in a changing industry.” The partnership with Verito, he explained, is a direct response to member needs for reliable, industry-specific training on emerging technologies. The curriculum aims to empower tax professionals to not only protect themselves and their clients but also to confidently advise clients on the responsible use of AI within their own businesses. Ultimately, education is the first step, but implementation is what counts. Having a certificate is one thing; having a documented, tested, and enforced internal policy on AI use is what truly protects clients and the firm itself. We advise our clients to look for this level of operational maturity in all their financial partners. The curriculum will likely cover practical topics such as vetting third-party AI software vendors, creating internal usage policies for AI tools, understanding data privacy implications, and implementing security protocols to prevent data leakage. By formalizing this knowledge, the program seeks to create a standard of care for the use of AI in the tax profession. Moving forward, tax professionals and their small business clients should monitor for further guidance from the IRS and other regulatory bodies on the specific use of artificial intelligence in tax preparation. The development of this curriculum may spur the creation of industry-wide best practices and could become a key differentiator for firms looking to demonstrate their commitment to security and technological competence in a competitive market.