How are you using AI at your firm?

I’ve been asking my network of Controller’s this question. Many of them are responding with “We’re not, but I would love to.” The general feeling is that management is highly supportive and positive about the use of AI. Whereas the adoption by the individual contributors has been slower to take off. Accountants are generally pretty slow to adopt new technology, but being in the tech industry, I really have no excuse.

Some of the reasons that I’ve heard for why accounting teams are not adopting AI more are listed below.

1. Not understanding how to use the technology.
2. Privacy / data concerns.
3. Fear of the AI making mistakes.
4. Scared that AI will make their jobs obsolete.
5. No time to implement new systems into their workflow.
6. Any other reasons?

I’ve been pushing myself and my team to find new ways to use AI in our day to day. Here are a few ways that we’ve started to incorporate this revolutionary technology into our workflows. Obviously, this is just scratching the surface, but I already cannot imagine going back to a time without ChatGPT.

1. We use ChatGPT to do technical accounting research. It can summarize data in an incredibly short amount of time that would take me 30 minutes or more of research and then write a draft for. We have to then go do our own research and confirm / deny ChatGPTs initial arguments because sometimes it can get it wrong! It’s always important to do your own independent research.
2. ChatGPT can also at the same time, create a framework for any memos that we then need to write. I use it to edit memos and ask it to add or refine the information included in our memo. It can also to help us find supporting documentation. This can save up to 2 hours of time writing a memo.
3. We use ChatGPT to help us write complex Excel formulas. Or to explain how a complex formula works within a spreadsheet. There are times where I need some help debugging my formulas and I can upload the sheet or take a screenshot and input my error message, ChatGPT will then try to help me figure out what’s wrong with my formula. Amazing right?
4. ChatGPT has also helped me implement some technical software
5. I frequently use Grammarly to rewrite my memos and emails for me. I can give it direction and it can rewrite it with the notes that I give it. The trick is to balance emails with your own personality and not to have too much AI influence in the text. One of my reports had written her entire review with ChatGPT and I could tell immediately. It didn’t impact her review but it made it seem impersonal.

Not only is the rise of AI changing my working life, but it’s also improving my personal life. This weekend, I used ChatGPT to edit and write a rental listing for me. I gave it some basic information about the rent, deposit, and lease terms and asked it to fill in amenities and proximity to destinations based on the address that I put in. I then asked it to populate it in the format for 4 different popular listing sites! All of this was done in less than 20 minutes. There really are so many uses to help make our lives more efficient, what are some ways that you’ve leveraged the new AI technology in your life recently?