AI and the R&D Tax Credit: Where the Opportunity Is Real - Alvarez & Marsal
PushButton AI Team ·
AI and the R&D Tax Credit: Where the Opportunity Is Real - Alvarez & Marsal
You spent money on an AI tool your team never opened. Now someone's telling you to spend more.
That frustration is legitimate. And it's more common than anyone admits.
Here's what most people miss a
You spent money on an AI tool your team never opened. Now someone's telling you to spend more.
That frustration is legitimate. And it's more common than anyone admits.
Here's what most people miss about AI investment: some of it qualifies for R&D tax credits. Not the subscription you bought and forgot about — but when a business actively builds, tests, or customizes AI to solve a specific operational problem, that work can qualify as research and development under IRS guidelines.
This matters to you right now because it changes the math. That custom workflow you've been hesitant to build? The process you want to automate but can't justify the cost? The right implementation, documented properly, may offset a meaningful portion of the expense.
You don't need to rip anything apart. You don't need to learn code. You just need to know this option exists before you make your next move.
One actionable step: Before your next AI project, ask your accountant if qualifying R&D activity applies to your situation. A single conversation could recover real dollars from work you were already planning to do.
AI doesn't have to be a gamble. Sometimes the system rewards you for trying it right.
What's the one AI problem you'd solve first if cost wasn't the obstacle?
Design and optimization of algorithms; Engineering custom data pipelines and training frameworks; Model validation and performance tuning; Integration ...
