Marek Rucinski

Marek Rucinski

Greater Sydney Area
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About

Current role: Deputy Commissioner at Australian Taxation Office, Chief Data Officer and…

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  • Australian Taxation Office Graphic

    Australian Taxation Office

    Sydney, Australia

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    Sydney Australia & Singapore

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    Sydney, Australia

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    Sydney, Australia

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    Sydney, Australia

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    Sydney

Education

Publications

  • AI auditors let ATO find millions in unpaid tax and super

    Australian Financial Review

    The Australian Taxation Office’s deputy commissioner of smarter data Marek Rucinski says he can measure the return on his team’s efforts to deploy artificial intelligence across the Australian economy to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

    Few private company or public sector executives are as open as Rucinski in discussing the financial spoils available from increasingly smart software, and he says strong controls are needed to make sure humans remain a crucial part of the…

    The Australian Taxation Office’s deputy commissioner of smarter data Marek Rucinski says he can measure the return on his team’s efforts to deploy artificial intelligence across the Australian economy to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

    Few private company or public sector executives are as open as Rucinski in discussing the financial spoils available from increasingly smart software, and he says strong controls are needed to make sure humans remain a crucial part of the system, as the bots get more powerful.

    Marek Rucinski says AI can help identify when an organisation is likely to underpay superannuation. Martin Ollman

    Rucinski wowed attendees at The Australian Financial Review’s Government Services Summit in 2023, when he explained how AI was a central part of the ATO’s efforts in trying to recover almost $45 billion in unpaid taxes owed by Australians. He says efforts have continued apace since, as he balances growing data and digital capabilities with a measured approach to ensure tech smarts are deployed in a safe and responsible manner.

    “In the ATO, we would only use AI where it is legal and ethical to do so, and where humans are ultimately responsible for the decision-making that impacts clients,” Rucinski says.

    “We keep abreast of emerging data and analytics technologies and techniques to identify those that may potentially provide value in administrating the tax, super and registry systems end-to-end.

    “The returns are indirect and we expect it to be demonstrated through increased operational efficiencies, client satisfaction and revenue outcomes, such as through the early detection of fraud.”

    See publication

  • Follow the money: Australian Taxation Office sets the pace for government adoption of AI

    The Mandarin

    See publication

  • ATO captures billions of dollars from tax cheats with AI

    Australian Financial Review

    ATO used AI to indentify more than $530m of unpaid tax bills and stop $2.5bn of tax fraud.

    Natural language models had scoured the Panama Papers detecting $242m owed by tax evaders.

    AI uses of of automation and AI decision controls and ethics based human oversight

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  • How to build a modern data organisation

    Austrlian Financial Review

    Computing and taxes have long shared a common ancestry, which explains why revenue offices around the world are typically leaders in the use of computing technology and the application of computing data and analytics.

    This is certainly true here, and the Australian Tax Office is arguably the most advanced public sector proponent of modern data analytics and a case study for the inevitable transition of government agencies into a data-centric world.

    Many of the AI tools the ATO is…

    Computing and taxes have long shared a common ancestry, which explains why revenue offices around the world are typically leaders in the use of computing technology and the application of computing data and analytics.

    This is certainly true here, and the Australian Tax Office is arguably the most advanced public sector proponent of modern data analytics and a case study for the inevitable transition of government agencies into a data-centric world.

    Many of the AI tools the ATO is using to better collect revenue are now available off the shelf. 

    The ATO’s data and analytics practice, known as ‘Smarter Data’, seeks to exploit its “data rich” environment to better collect the more than $500 billion in annual taxes needed to fund the federation.

    These days, this is all about using deep learning and artificial intelligence to parse the extraordinary stream of data the ATO captures. Thanks to automation initiatives such as single touch payroll, much of this data comes in near real-time, giving the ATO an extraordinary fire hose of data to feed its algorithms and artificial intelligence apps.

    See publication

  • Meet ANGIE, the ATO's secret weapon to beat wealthy tax cheats

    Australian Financial Review

    ANGIE (Automated Network & Grouping Identification Engine) creates maps of corporate entities and related transactions across time. It can identify connections and relationships and “patterns of interest” for revenue authorities to investigate.


    Humans typically struggle to see patterns in complex high-frequency transactions, but computers can be trained to identify networks and suspicious transactions.

    The technology is similar to that used by Netflix to make recommendations…

    ANGIE (Automated Network & Grouping Identification Engine) creates maps of corporate entities and related transactions across time. It can identify connections and relationships and “patterns of interest” for revenue authorities to investigate.


    Humans typically struggle to see patterns in complex high-frequency transactions, but computers can be trained to identify networks and suspicious transactions.

    The technology is similar to that used by Netflix to make recommendations based on patterns of usage. Google uses similar database technology to rank its search returns based on relevance, and LinkedIn also applies a similar artificial intelligence model to find networks of people based on common linkages, such as schools.

    “The computers never get tired, they just keep going and keep cycling through creating probabilistic links in the network,” ATO deputy commissioner Marek Rucinski told The Australian Financial Review. “They create those network charts and present them to the human analysts for further analysis.

    “It really is around bringing transparency to corporate transactions and structures that are sometimes extremely complex,” Mr Rucinski said.

    See publication

  • Accenture: Industrial Internet of Things, big data & analytics at the edge

    IT Brief

    The Internet of Things (IoT) has led to an unprecedented level of connectivity within enterprise.

    The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has facilitated connectivity between manufacturing machines, industrial equipment, pipelines and other remote devices which, in turn, has created vast amounts of operational data.

    Although big data is a valuable resource for organisations, many businesses are stuck in the “what, how, where” phase of their IIoT thinking because of the challenges…

    The Internet of Things (IoT) has led to an unprecedented level of connectivity within enterprise.

    The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has facilitated connectivity between manufacturing machines, industrial equipment, pipelines and other remote devices which, in turn, has created vast amounts of operational data.

    Although big data is a valuable resource for organisations, many businesses are stuck in the “what, how, where” phase of their IIoT thinking because of the challenges of implementation.

    Enterprises must connect, identify and secure numerous different devices, machines, and appliances. They must capture, transmit and store data from those things.

    Analytics at the edge is a new and different solution. It involves carrying out conventional big data analysis but moving more of it to the edge of the network. In other words, closer to the “essence” or the “thing” that is the source of the new data, whether that be a vehicle, industrial machine, fitness device or washing machine.

    Edge Analytics could be used to optimise uptime and maintenance for an individual oil well, for example, while Big Data cloud-based models work across multiple locations at an enterprise level.

    The benefits of edge analytics’ problem-focused approach will initially be seen at the edge of the network. That means optimisation will first occur at the level of individual pieces of equipment.

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  • How Telstra is applying machine learning to marketing mix modelling

    CMO

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  • Telstra builds 900 machine learning models for marketing overhaul

    IT News Australia

  • How to build an analytics-driven agency culture

    The Mandarin

    Australia lags nations like the US and UK in data-driven policy design and harnessing public data for business. So how can agencies build a passion around data analytics to better serve citizens?

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  • The Marketing universe keeps getting bigger

    The Australian

    For decades, marketers bemoaned their lack of certainty when planning campaigns and measuring results.
    Now digital technology is delivering that missing data by the gigabyte, and the problem is no longer the volume of data available, but a marketer’s ability to understand and use it.

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  • Data analytics: a powerful tool for smaller, leaner government

    The Mandarin

    The federal budget called for government to be “smaller, more digital, and more flexible”. So how can data analytics help agencies achieve these important future objectives? A change agenda is needed.

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  • How government can unlock billions of dollars in savings

    The Mandarin

    A US start-up used government data to make $1.5 billion. The New Zealand government put data to work to find $954 million. The potential for Australian agencies is enormous. But internal barriers remain.

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Languages

  • Polish

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