The AI transformation story
Indirect tax departments have long been caught in a reactive cycle, chasing compliance deadlines, manually reviewing endless transactions, and fighting fires instead of driving strategy. Thomson Reuters® ONESOURCE Determination with CoCounsel represents a fundamental shift — from a calculation engine to a strategic intelligence platform that amplifies human expertise rather than replacing it.
It's about liberation from repetitive, redundant tasks so you can focus on what tax professionals do best: strategic thinking, complex judgment calls, risk assessment, and business partnership.
What is ONESOURCE Determination with CoCounsel?
ONESOURCE Determination is a cloud-native, tax automation solution developed by Thomson Reuters. It’s part of the broader ONESOURCE suite and is specifically designed to handle indirect tax determination and calculation for sales tax, use tax, value-added tax (VAT), goods and services tax (GST), and excise taxes across 205 countries and territories.
CoCounsel is a chat-based generative AI (GenAI) assistant across all customer workflows, making quick work of routine tasks, analyzing information, and delivering answers so you can maximize the impact of your time, energy, and expertise. It’s like having a senior tax advisor at your fingertips to help with:
- Accelerating research and troubleshooting up to 200 times
- Navigating e-invoicing mandates and regulatory changes
- Applying Checkpoint’s authoritative content directly to specific business scenarios, giving you answers — not just research
- Automating workflows and standardizing processes with analysis templates
- Building reusable templates for recurring scenarios like nexus determinations or product classifications
- Taxability analysis in uploaded documents across relevant jurisdictions, exposure highlights, and specific citations
The human-AI partnership model
This partnership works because each side contributes what it does best:
- AI gets tax calculations right from the start. It creates a solid foundation for the entire workflow and reduces error rates to below 1%, eliminating costly issues from the process before you begin.
- AI handles the volume and saves you time. It processes thousands of transactions, monitors regulatory changes across jurisdictions, flags anomalies in real-time, and maintains calculation accuracy.
- Tax professionals provide the judgment. They review flagged exceptions, validate complex scenarios, make strategic decisions, and override calculations when business context demands it.
- You achieve more together. Your AI agent amplifies your team’s capabilities, enabling one professional to oversee what entire teams managed previously.
The force multiplier effect
By leveraging AI-powered automation, tax teams can achieve:
- Time savings of 40% to 60% reduction in manual workload across compliance functions
- Cost efficiency as teams scale without proportional headcount increases
- Estimated value of $52K per professional at innovator firms
- Proactive compliance through real-time monitoring that catches issues before they become penalties
- Strategic capacity with hours previously spent on data entry now devoted to tax planning and business advisory
Calculate your department's productivity opportunity
Sources: Thomson Reuters Institute 2025 State of Corporate Tax Departments Report, Thomson Reuters Institute Managing Change in Indirect Tax & Compliance 2025, and Thomson Reuters 2025 Future of Professionals Report
The force multiplier effect
The most compelling aspect of ONESOURCE with CoCounsel is how it redefines the tax professional’s role. Existing teams gain the capacity to deliver exponentially more value across broader responsibilities.
Positions transformed by automation
Indirect tax compliance specialists
From manual processor -> Strategic analyst
Tax operation managers and shared service leaders
From firefighter -> Strategic operations leader
Tax analysts: product classification and determination
Tax analyst transformation
From manual researcher → Strategic classification architect
Tax technology and integration specialists
Tax technology specialist transformation
From maintenance technician → Digital transformation architect
Senior tax advisors and strategic leaders
Senior tax advisor transformation
From occasional advisor → Continuous strategic partner
The transformed dynamic: People, process, and systems
People — from operators to strategists
The transformation begins with people. Using ONESOURCE Determination with CoCounsel for routine tasks, tax professionals evolve from compliance operators to strategic advisors. Teams become:
- More strategic. AI automation reduces manual work, allowing time for scenario planning and risk assessment.
- More proactive. This tool uses AI-powered anomaly detection and continuous monitoring to identify and flag issues before they escalate.
- More valuable. Thomson Reuters emphasizes that AI augments and verifies tax professionals’ judgment, affording them the time to focus on elevated interpretation and strategic decisions.
- More agile. This technology provides real-time data integration and compliance dashboards for faster decision-making.
The strategic advantages: Time, money, and competitive edge
Time savings
Tax professionals’ time is reallocated to strategic activities that drive business value and increase career satisfaction:
- Transaction processing. Automated determination eliminates manual lookups and calculations.
- Compliance reporting. Automated data transfers and validation reduce filing time by 50% or more.
- Audit preparation. AI-generated documentation and data trails reduce prep time by 60%.
- Regulatory updates. Automatic rule updates eliminate the need for manual research and system changes.
- Exception handling. Professionals focus only on true anomalies, not routine reviews.
Cost savings
The financial impact extends across multiple dimensions:
- Operational efficiency. Handle more volume with existing staff.
- Error reduction. Eliminate costly mistakes and penalties with over 99% accuracy.
- Audit defense. Reduce fines and assessments with better documentation and compliance.
- Scalability. Grow transaction volume without proportional cost increases.
- Retention. Reduce costly turnover with higher job satisfaction.
- Strategic value. Drive better business decisions and savings opportunities with tax insights.
Want to see the numbers for your organization? Access our ROI calculator.
Get a personalized analysis showing:
✓ Error reduction savings
✓ Team efficiency gains
✓ IT maintenance cost reduction
✓ Total three-year return on investment (ROI) projection
Beyond calculation: Unlocking proactive tax management
The more you automate with an AI-augmented tax engine like ONESOURCE Determination with CoCounsel, the more valuable your human expertise becomes.
Proactive tax management capabilities:
- Risk identification. Spot compliance risks before they escalate into costly problems.
- Regulatory foresight. Stay ahead of regulatory changes and adapt proactively.
- Optimization insights. Uncover opportunities for tax savings and strategic planning.
Strategic business partnership
By leveraging ONESOURCE Determination with CoCounsel, tax functions transform into strategic advisors, providing:
- Real-time insights. Enable informed business decisions with up-to-the-minute data.
- Market expansion support. Ensure confident tax treatment during market expansion.
- Tax-efficient strategies. Identify opportunities for efficient tax planning.
Agility and innovation
This solution supports business agility through:
- Rapid regulatory adaptation. Quickly respond to changes in regulations.
- Business model agility. Swiftly adapt to shifts in business strategy.
- Digital transformation. Easily support digital initiatives with scalable tax solutions.
Compliance as a competitive advantage
Automated and reliable compliance processes turn tax from a cost center into a strategic enabler, allowing businesses to:
- Accelerate market expansion. Confidently enter new markets with accurate tax treatment.
- Streamline product launches. Avoid tax-related delays in product introductions.
- Reduce audit risks. Minimize exposure to audits and penalties.
Data-driven decision-making
ONESOURCE Determination with CoCounsel turns transaction data into actionable intelligence, enabling:
- Tax-savings identification. Find opportunities for savings across the organization.
- Business impact modeling. Assess the tax implications of business decisions.
- Data-backed recommendations. Provide leadership with informed strategic advice.
Scalability without added costs
As businesses grow, ONESOURCE Determination with CoCounsel scales seamlessly:
- Handle increased volume. Manage 5 to 10 times the transaction volumes without increasing headcount.
- Manage complexity. Easily handle multiple jurisdictions and business units.
- Maintain accuracy. Ensure compliance and accuracy even as the business evolves.
The compelling value proposition
When AI handles tax operations, everyone wins:
- Tax professionals evolve from compliance-focused roles to strategic advisory positions.
- Tax leaders build a proactive, strategic, and scalable tax function.
- The organization transforms tax from a cost center into a strategic growth enabler.
Questions tax leaders should ask before transformation
Successfully transforming your tax function with AI-powered automation requires strategic clarity, organizational readiness, and a clear vision for the future. Before embarking on this journey, tax leaders should ask themselves critical questions across five key dimensions:
1. Strategic alignment and vision
- What role do we want our tax function to play in the organization?
- How will AI-powered automation support our broader business objectives?
- What's driving our urgency to transform?
2. Organizational readiness and change management
- Is our organization ready for this level of change?
- How will roles and responsibilities evolve?
- What's our communication strategy?
3. Technology and infrastructure
- What's the current state of our technology ecosystem?
- What are the integration requirements?
- What level of automation do we need?
4. Risk, compliance, and governance
- How will we maintain control and oversight?
- What are the risks of transformation versus the risks of staying put?
- Are we prepared for increased regulatory scrutiny and digital reporting requirements?
5. Vendor selection and partnership
- What do we need from a technology partner?
- How will we evaluate potential solutions?
- What's our long-term vision for the partnership?
Asking these questions enables tax leaders to navigate the transformation journey with clarity and confidence, ensuring their tax function becomes a proactive, strategic, and scalable enabler of business growth.
To discuss your answers, schedule a consultation.
The bottom line
Transformation isn't just about technology — it's about people, processes, and a clear strategic vision for what your tax function can become. By asking these questions early and honestly, tax leaders can:
- Build a compelling business case for investment and executive support
- Prepare your teams for change with transparency and empathy
- Select the right technology partner aligned with your needs and goals
- Set realistic expectations for timelines, milestones, and outcomes
- Position their tax function as a strategic driver of business value
The future of indirect tax is both tax professionals and AI working together, each contributing what they do best, creating outcomes neither could achieve alone. ONESOURCE Determination with CoCounsel doesn't just automate tax — it transforms tax professionals into the strategic advisors their organizations need in an increasingly complex global environment.
According to research from the Thomson Reuters Institute, 59% of indirect tax professionals say their organizations plan to upskill their current staff to handle new technologies and strategic responsibilities. The question isn't whether to embrace this transformation; it's how quickly you can get there.
Ready to see how your department compares? Calculate your ROI in three minutes.
Our interactive calculator will show you:
- Time savings in hours reclaimed per team member annually
- Cost reduction via potential savings from error elimination
- Efficiency gains from compliance and tax team productivity improvements
- IT savings through reduced maintenance burden
- Payback period showing when you'll see ROI
If you're a tax leader evaluating solutions for your team, schedule a personalized transformation roadmap session with a ONESOURCE expert.
Ready to see how your department compares?
Take our two-minute transformation-readiness assessment to discover:
- Your current automation maturity level
- Specific bottlenecks holding you back
- Recommended next steps for your situation
- ROI projections based on your profile
To learn more, explore ONESOURCE Determination with CoCounsel.
The transformation is already underway. The only question is whether you will lead it — or follow it?
ONESOURCE Indirect Tax Determination
Learn how ONESOURCE is the only complete indirect tax solution for domestic and multinational corporations