🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Basis’s valuation rests on specialized agents

• Basis focuses on “long-horizon” agents that can run complex accounting workflows on their own for many hours 1.
• An agent completed an end-to-end Form 1065 partnership tax return (a U.S. Internal Revenue Service tax form used by partnerships) without handoffs 1.
• That engineering depth drew individual investors that include executives and former executives from OpenAI (board/leadership), Google, Stripe, and Amazon 1.
• Basis says it works with about 30% of the top 25 U.S. accounting firms 1.

The ‘agent-native’ company lays out a blueprint for knowledge work

• Basis’s model shifts professional services work toward human experts reviewing AI output instead of doing every step by hand.
• Basis positions the product as support for accountants, which can free time for tax planning and capital allocation work 2.
• The same approach could carry into law and consulting, where autonomous AI could handle documentation and research.
• Basis uses the model internally through a team called “Atlas,” which builds agents for engineering work, sales work, and talent operations 3.