AI in Tax: 240 Hours Saved, with Humans Still Reviewing | Morgan Randolph, Atlassian Global Head of Tax

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