How AI is Transforming Avalara Exemption Certificate Management

Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving from buzzword to business essential. Avalara is applying the power of AI to exemption certificate management — one of the most manual, time-consuming areas of tax compliance.

Key takeaways

Proactive compliance: AI-powered validation evaluates exemption certificates for completeness and accuracy at the point of receipt, helping tax teams reduce audit exposure and address compliance gaps.

Scale with ease: By combining AI validation with intelligent document processing and automated workflows, organizations can ingest, classify, validate, and route certificates at scale while reducing manual intervention.

Smarter compliance management: Natural language search enhances document retrieval and overall usability, reducing training requirements and accelerating resolution of inquiries.

AI-powered certificate validation

Avalara Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) can now validate exemption certificates automatically. By using AI, our solution reviews certificates for accuracy — spotting missing fields and flagging potential errors faster and more accurately than manual reviews. This helps tax teams spend less time on paperwork and more time focusing on strategy.

Intelligent document processing + automated workflows

Avalara combines intelligent document processing (IDP) with AI-driven workflows to streamline exemption certificate handling. Businesses can ingest, classify, validate, and route certificates at scale — without the typical backlogs and bottlenecks.

The result:

• Faster processing of high-volume certificate uploads
• Reduced manual workloads and fewer administrative tasks
• Hours saved through automated validation and routing

This is compliance designed for speed and scale — built to reduce risk and save time.

Natural language search for smarter navigation

A new natural language search feature makes it even easier to find the right documents and act quickly. Whether you're looking up certificates by customer name, exemption reason, or invoice number, Avalara ECM understands and responds in plain language. This reduces training needs, shortens time to resolution, and improves day-to-day usability for everyone involved in exemption management.

Why it matters

Certificate errors can lead to serious consequences, from audit exposure to penalties. Automating validation helps ensure your certificates are complete and accurate, so you can reduce the risk of tax liabilities and maintain consistent compliance across jurisdictions.

Discover what's next in exemption certificate management

Our ECM solution is built to grow with your business. With AI-powered validation, automated workflows, and natural language search, it helps you keep exemption compliance under control — no matter how many certificates you manage.

Learn more about Avalara Exemption Certificate Management here.

Conclusion

The future of tax compliance is automated, intelligent, and AI-enabled. With Avalara ECM, exemption certificate management becomes faster, more accurate, and less manual — freeing your team to focus on what's next.

FAQ

In what situations are exemption certificates required?

Exemption certificates are required when a customer claims a resale, manufacturing, nonprofit, government, or other qualifying tax exemption. They document why sales tax was not collected and must align with jurisdiction-specific rules.

What issues do businesses face with exemption certificates?

Common challenges include expired or incomplete certificates, inconsistent documentation across states, and limited visibility into certificate status. Manual tracking makes it difficult to maintain accuracy as transaction volumes grow, often leading to compliance issues, increased audit risk, and missed compliance requirements.

How does AI-powered ECM support exemption management?

AI-powered ECM automatically extracts and validates key certificate data, processes certificates at scale, and flags invalid or inconsistent entries in real time. By standardizing validation across large volumes of documents, it reduces manual review effort and improves overall process reliability.

How does natural language search improve exemption management?

Natural language search allows users to quickly locate certificates using plain-language queries, such as customer names or exemption types, improving internal responsiveness and operational efficiency.

Does the AI validation assistant validate all ECM certificate types?

Currently, support covers the 50 most commonly used exemption certificate types. More certificate types are being added, with planned expansion to support all ECM certificate types by Q2 2026.