Tax Leaders Unplugged

Morgan Randolph, Global Head of Tax at Atlassian, joins Tax Leaders Unplugged to discuss whether AI is a threat or an opportunity for in-house tax teams.

One AI-enabled workflow helped Atlassian's India tax team process thousands of airline receipts and invoices, saving 240 hours and turning a highly manual process into one that is almost instant.

Morgan also shares how AI made her budget review 10 times faster and 10 times better, how her team turned a Section 382 research procedure into a working spreadsheet, and how a script removed a repetitive 25-minute step from a SOX control.

In this episode:

- Why experimentation turns AI fear into excitement
- How Atlassian combines tax champions, broad tool access, workbook prototypes and a tax hackathon
- Why tax teams should start with low-hanging fruit
- Where custom tax apps create scale, version control, assurance and audit concerns
- Why human review remains essential in high-risk tax processes
- How Morgan progressed from Senior Tax Accountant to Global Head of Tax
- What mentors, honest feedback and genuine professional relationships can do for a tax career

Key lessons:

- Start with a recurring manual process the team understands
- Give the whole team permission to experiment
- Use prototypes to make AI tangible
- Keep people accountable for accuracy, controls and auditability
- Design for scale before turning a personal script into a team process
- The opportunity is more proactive thinking, earlier decisions and more tax with less Excel

Morgan Randolph:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgan-randolph-cpa-91b74428

Stevi Frooninckx:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevifrooninckx

Tax Leaders Unplugged:
https://podcast.loctax.com/

Loctax:
https://www.loctax.com/

Resources:
Atlassian ShipIt hackathons: https://www.atlassian.com/company/shipit
Confluence: https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence
Loom: https://www.loom.com/
Claude for Excel: https://www.anthropic.com/news/advancing-claude-for-financial-services
Gemini in Google Sheets: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/14356410
Accordance AI: https://accordance.com/
Alteryx: https://www.alteryx.com/

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction: Morgan Randolph, Global Head of Tax at Atlassian
04:00 AI in tax: fear, excitement and experimentation
07:30 How Atlassian organises tax transformation
09:30 Why tax leaders need to test AI themselves
10:10 How to run a tax-focused AI hackathon
15:00 Vibe coding, difficult workbooks and scaling prototypes
17:30 The workflow that saved 240 hours
19:00 Tax provision opportunities and human review
20:10 Custom tax apps, audit controls and the future of tax work
21:00 More tax and less Excel
22:30 Skills for the tax professional of the future
25:40 Four practical AI use cases
29:30 How small wins turn AI sceptics into active users
30:10 Morgan's path to Global Head of Tax
36:30 Mentorship, feedback and trust in a global remote team
44:20 Career advice: build genuine relationships

Christian Klein, VP Accounting, Reporting and Tax at Autodoc, joins Tax Leaders Unplugged to discuss how he is using AI to scale a finance and tax function under two-digit growth, and why culture decides whether that works. He shares:

- How Autodoc moved from collecting 60 AI ideas to 5 products in development, 2 of them already live, by enabling people before buying tools.
- Real outcomes, including a daily reconciliation cut from 3 hours to 5 minutes and a standing target of at least 20% efficiency gains a year.
- What it took to keep a 6,000-hour year-end audit on track after losing his accounting director with one week's notice.

Key Insights and Learnings:
- Enable people first, pick tools second. Autodoc ran a finance-team survey, opened an AI "garage", held weeklys, teach-ins and a hackathon capped at 30 seats, then attached a business case and return on investment to each use case before going live.
- Build in-house where you can. Autodoc ran 2 to 3 proof-of-concepts with an external AI vendor over 3 months, built the same thing in-house with its IT team, and got a more robust, more reliable, more steerable result with no price tag attached.
- Watch the vendor pricing model. Some providers charge a transaction fee of 20% to 30% of the efficiency gain, so Christian checks every use case against its own business case. Finance and tax rarely show the euro savings that justify that.
- The tax advisor qualification still pays off. AI can now pass the German chartered tax advisor exam, but Christian argues the qualification still builds the judgement to see where the obstacles and risks sit.
- Resilience comes from culture. A core team of 5 absorbed the director's workload and delivered the audit faster, with no surprises, because the environment lets people step into a gap when something is burning.

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Where to find Christian Klein: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ch-klein
Where to find Stevi Frooninckx: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevifrooninckx

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[00:00] Introduction. Who is Christian Klein, VP Accounting, Reporting and Tax at Autodoc.
[00:44] Life outside tax. Family, repairing an old convertible, golf, a new mountain bike and learning guitar.
[02:49] Two months in Bali and Lombok with the family, phone switched off, and not remembering which office floor he worked on.
[04:56] The career path. From PwC audit in Frankfurt into industry at Home24, and why audit left him wanting ownership of the outcome.
[07:23] Earning the chartered tax advisor licence, then taking on the tax team alongside accounting, and combining the finance and tax worlds.
[09:10] The SAP implementation in 8 months, with end-to-end tests run through to the tax return to protect VAT across 19 million orders a year.
[11:25] Is the tax advisor qualification still worth it now AI can pass the exam? A colleague's move from exams to n8n and Python.
[16:19] Saving time at scale. The AR reconciliation cut from 3 hours to 5 minutes, and the 20% annual efficiency target.
[18:36] How to start with AI. The survey, the AI garage, teach-ins, hackathon, 60 ideas, business cases, and building in-house versus buying.
[24:42] Handling fear in the team. Taking the scary moment away and turning sceptics into the core AI team.
[27:12] Where the freed-up time actually goes, and a tax leader's duty to use it well.
[29:39] Tax authorities and AI. Receiving the requirements but not yet seeing the data put to use.
[33:15] Audits as a learning tool. Treating findings as the basis for improving the organisation.
[34:54] Unlocking budget. Working with compliance case by case, and funding an exploratory garage.
[37:00] The coming AI sales funnel, where the assistant buys the spare part for the customer.
[42:29] The high-performance team. Running a 6,000-hour audit a person down, and why culture is the secret.
[45:43] One piece of advice. Stay curious and take on responsibility.

Luis Nouel, Manager Latin America, Africa-Middle East and Bulletin of International Taxation Teams at IBFD, joins Tax Leaders Unplugged to discuss how tax research actually gets done and where AI fits in. We recorded at IBFD HQ in Amsterdam. Luis brings 33 years in tax, more than 18 of them at IBFD, and currently leads the Latin America, transfer pricing and VAT teams. We covered:

- How a tax research workflow runs in practice, from mapping cross-border consequences to working country chapters before opening legislation.

- Why tax authorities have been using AI for 8 to 9 years and what that means for in-house tax teams under shrinking budgets.

- The compounding complexity of BEPS, MLI and Pillar Two, and why Luis is convinced the next wave will be worse.

- Why IBFD's curated dataset is the foundation that makes the Loctax AI Assistant game-changing, instead of unreliable.

- How the Loctax and IBFD partnership turns that dataset into an AI assistant that tax professionals can trust on the specifics, so the human work shifts to judgement, audit defence and business partnering.

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Where to find Luis Nouel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisnouel
Where to find Stevi Frooninckx: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevifrooninckx

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[00:00] Introduction. Recording at IBFD HQ Amsterdam. Luis Nouel's background: tax lawyer, 33 years in tax, more than 18 at IBFD, currently leading the Latin America, transfer pricing and VAT teams.
[02:10] Why tax research grabs you. Connecting dots across corporate income tax, VAT, transfer pricing, customs and individual taxation.
[03:15] Tax is never binary, it's grey. Taking positions you can defend at audit.
[05:55] How tax research actually runs. Step back to see the big picture, then work the deadline.
[08:47] Worked example. Liquidating a Venezuelan subsidiary held by a Spanish parent: domestic consequences in both jurisdictions, exit taxation, treatment at the parent.
[10:57] Why Luis goes to country chapters before legislation. IBFD covers 220+ jurisdictions.
[11:49] Books and university tax libraries. Why hard copy can't keep up with the rate of change.
[14:18] Why up to date matters. Free internet sources versus the risk you're willing to take.
[16:34] Complexity is not slowing down. OECD models, then MLI, then Pillar Two, and the next wave Luis expects to be worse.
[19:31] Tax authorities stepping up. AI in their hands for 8 to 9 years. Dispute resolution as the new normal.
[22:10] Paper it up. Building a documentation defence so a 3 to 5 year audit gap doesn't sink you.
[24:38] The AI elephant. Quality jump in the last 6 to 8 months when AI is applied to the right data and the right guardrails.
[27:31] AI reshapes functions, not replaces them. PC and internet as parallels.
[28:48] The Loctax and IBFD AI assistant. Full IBFD library across legislation, treaties, doctrine, journals and case law.
[31:37] Joint mission. Spreading tax research to in-house, advisory and tax authorities.
[32:17] Closing. "Don't be afraid of it. The sooner you embrace the new technologies, the better you're gonna get handling them."

Sarah Spring, Head of Tax at Oatly, joins Tax Leaders Unplugged to share her path from finance and accounting into tax leadership, and what it takes to become a real business partner inside an international company. She explains why tax teams need to stop acting as a clean-up function and instead get involved before key decisions are made.With a team of just four, Sarah also shares how she approaches tax transformation in practice, from VAT automation to better use of existing systems. A key theme is influence. Speak business, not tax. Push for a seat at the table. She also highlights a growing challenge. Today’s filings may be reviewed years later with far more advanced AI, raising the bar for controls and data quality now.
🔑 Key Insights and Learnings:
- AI will raise the standard for tax controls.Sara highlights a critical shift. Returns filed today may be reviewed years later using far more advanced AI by tax authorities. That means tax teams need stronger controls, cleaner data and more consistency now, not later.- Speak business, not tax.If non-tax stakeholders do not understand you, you will not influence decisions. Translate tax into business impact.- Get involved before decisions are made.Tax should not fix issues after the fact. It should shape decisions early, especially on funding, structuring and cross-border activity.- You have to earn your seat at the table.Do not wait to be invited. Join meetings, follow projects and proactively insert tax into discussions that may not look tax-related at first.- Broader experience makes better tax leaders.Backgrounds in finance, accounting and treasury help you understand other teams and collaborate more effectively.- Lean teams require better systems and controls.With a team of four, technology is essential. AI will also raise audit standards, so data quality and consistency matter more than ever.—Where to find Sara Spring: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraemspring/Where to find Stevi Frooninckx: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevifrooninckx__[00:00:00] Introduction and Sarah’s background[00:03:55] Career path and attraction to dynamic environments[00:07:10] Contracting vs permanent roles[00:09:19] Cultural differences across countries[00:12:27] Transition from accounting to tax[00:16:08] From tax blocker to business partner[00:17:10] Speak business, not tax[00:19:05] Earning a seat at the table[00:30:40] Tax transformation, VAT automation and AI[00:33:00] Future audit risk and final leadership lessons

Nora Bafrouri, Global VAT and Tax Technology Lead at Trane Technologies, joins Tax Leaders Unplugged to discuss how indirect tax teams can move from compliance to measurable business value.She explains how she built a highly automated VAT operating model across 44 jurisdictions, why tax authorities are increasingly data-driven, and how a structured KPI dashboard helped her reposition VAT as a business partner. She shares:• How misalignment between VAT and technology priorities was solved by bringing the lifecycle under one leadership.• How Italy VAT refunds moved from a six-year cycle to being fully up to date.• Why tax teams must speak in business metrics if they want budget and influence.—Where to find Nora Bafrouri: https://www.linkedin.com/in/norabafrouri/Where to find Stevi Frooninckx: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevifrooninckx__In this episode, we cover:[00:00] Introduction – Who is Nora Bafrouri?Global VAT and Tax Technology Lead at Trane Technologies. Big 4 background. Belgium-based.[16:20] From VAT Compliance to Tax Technology LeadershipSpotting misalignment between indirect tax and technology. Taking ownership of the full lifecycle.[19:00] Scaling Across 44 JurisdictionsBuilding a highly automated VAT model with a small tax tech team.[27:40] Tax Authorities Shift to Data-Driven AuditsFrom legal debates to data mismatches. Real-time reporting changes the game.[31:20] From Cost Centre to Value DriverUsing technology to improve productivity, working capital and reputation.[32:12] Italy VAT Case StudyRefund cycle reduced from 6 years to fully up to date, including 2024 approval.[34:00] Measuring Value With a DashboardTracking risk mitigated, cash flow optimisation and productivity gains.[40:50] The Future of AI in TaxTraditional AI vs generative AI. Why tax teams must stay alert.[44:00] Final AdviceBe engaged. Bring stakeholders into your journey. Build for the organisation, not just tax.