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Welcome to the Accounting for Innovation podcast, where we explore cutting edge strategies and insights into the world of accounting and finance.
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Presented by Decimal and the Radical CPA, each episode dives deep into industry trends.
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Whether you're a seasoned professional or a budding entrepreneur, join us as we unpack key concepts and share practical tips to drive success.
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Integrating AI and AI in everyday life.
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So today I'm pretty excited because we're going to be talking about everyday uses of AI and how, um, firm owners are doing things with AI every day and what that looks like in your firm, how it should be impacting your everyday jobs, and it's not just accounting, right?
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Like we're going to be talking about things beyond accounting and how you can use these tools to really.
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Um, increase efficiency in your firm, kind of change up efficiency, make yourself, uh, I would say, uh, a lot more customer service friendly and really reduce time.
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I think that's the biggest thing that AI brings to us, uh, in our everyday life, even if we're not ready, quite ready yet to, you know, use it from a financial standpoint, but what are some of the tools that you can use every day in your firm?
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And, uh, so Matt.
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You know, what are you thinking about when you think about AI every day?
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You know, I, I kind of bucket what we all do into a few different places and you kind of hit the nail on the head.
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There's definitely AI in general accounting work.
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Hey, we get into the numbers, we get into the books, we get into the advising, whatever it is, there's that, but there's also communications and there's also research.
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And to me, when you talk about communications, sales, marketing, research, That's where AI can really have an immediate impact.
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And.
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I think you said it really well when you started talking about AI is being a time saver, because I think it is that.
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I also think it's, it's an idea generator, you know, one of the hardest things to do is get off of go in some things, talking to an accounting firm owner the other day, small firm.
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He's like, I wanted to get into the habit of writing a blog every two weeks.
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But I sit there for hours thinking about what to do.
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And I was like, Hey, let's pop it up.
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I'm Put it into chat.
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GPT.
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Let's come up with an idea for a blog.
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And within minutes he had something.
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What ended up posting looked nothing like what chat GPT did, but it got the momentum going and it got him off of go.
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And so I think AI is a time saver and content and writing things that traditionally accountants aren't necessarily the best at is a really good starting point.
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Yeah, so I think it's good from an idea perspective, right?
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Like if you're, um, needing clarity for things, right?
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Like, so a lot of times the way I use chat GPT is I'll have like things spinning in my head, which things spin all the time, but I will start to put them into prompts and I will give context around them.
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So like the.
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The way to use chat GP is the best way is to talk to it.
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It's just like, it's a friend, right?
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Like just don't think of it as prompts.
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Think of it as like, I'm talking to the person sitting next to you and I'm giving it all the instructions and all the detail around the instructions.
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And if you just kind of talk to it that way, you're going to get really good answers.
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So anyway, so I talked to it like it's a friend and like, I asked it for clarity around like things that I've been like kind of, I don't even want to say struggling, but just thinking about, and what happens is, is it seems to organize things in my head.
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Well, it's not in my head, but it's organizing things on paper that I necessarily couldn't get organized in my head without maybe taking, you know, You know, another two days to do, or like kind of really like sitting down and thinking about it, whereas I can use chat GPT to really bring clarity into my thoughts and kind of put them in like a more organized way than my thoughts.
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So maybe that's just my brain, but that's the way I see it as being really like an amazing help for me.
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Yeah, and look, one thing I did just the other day was we needed to come up with a graphic for a new kind of column and blog that we're doing, and I put into chat GPT some general thoughts around it, and it came up with something that was fine.
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It was okay.
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It was a little messy, and I gave it some more prompts.
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I said, Let's make it clear.
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Let's make it black and white, and let's make it with this title.
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And all of a sudden it did it.
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And four or five more prompts later, it got to exactly what I needed it to be.
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And, and I think that's where, when you, when you say talk to it, it's also criticize and help it.
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Think of it like that intern that works for you that comes up with the first work product and you want to be really nice to it, to the intern, and you're like, okay, When you came up with this, let's try this.
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Try tweaking that.
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Try changing this.
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What do you think about that?
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And if you treat it in that way, it can come up with really good work product for you in a way that's exceptionally beneficial.
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And, and I think that's just from a content, like one of the things you and I've talked a lot about is how hard it is for a lot of people that run their own accounting firm or that are doing business development to actually get out there and to do the things they need to do to generate business.
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And part of that can be just creating content.
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And a good way to do that for content is to use chat GPT as a starting point and or something like it.
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There are a million other things out there like chat GPT.
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But I use that as kind of a catch all that everybody knows.
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It's like Google search.
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You could also search on other places.
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Right.
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Well, and it too, like when you're writing emails, right?
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There are so many other tools too, that are starting to pop up right in the tools you're using.
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Right.
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And they have the AI like built right in.
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And it's funny because.
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For some of them, I'm a little bit like, I don't want to say nervous, but it's like, do I actually want to put something in there?
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Right.
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Like, is it, cause you know, like you're in a SAS tool and the next day, like it changes, right.
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And you're like, Ooh, like, should I press this button or not?
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I think a lot of accounts have this feeling like the whole thing's going to blow up.
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But, um, that, that's what I found too.
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Like, um, in notion, I don't know if anyone's used to using notion, but notion is, Um, basically it's like an organizer or a date timer on steroids.
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And I mean, I know it's more than that, but that's the way I use it as.
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And like, you can put in a graph, you can tell it how you want to organize like an organizational chart, and it will come up with the prettiest like boxes and.
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Organization and flow charts and everything.
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And you don't have to like sit there and move the box here and then draw the arrow.
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You just say, Hey, you know, this is the relationship between this entity and that entity, and, um, this is what they're going to do.
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And this is how it's all going to come together.
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And they.
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Build this beautiful flowchart for you that prior, I would have probably spent, I don't know, four hours and boxes and like trying to get the arrows right.
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Especially for people who are a little bit less PowerPoint friendly or do you know what I mean?
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Like, and I think that's like amazing that you don't necessarily need a person who's a PowerPoint expert now to build you something.
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You can do it right in, in a tool that's like you're already using.
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Well, and I think talking about AI already being built into tools, number one, in my email, we use front, but Google and Microsoft also have a version.
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I'll sometimes get done putting the kids to bed at night.
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And I'm like, I got 10 emails.
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I just need to reply to, I will immediately hit AI reply to all 10.
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And it creates the email for me.
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I'll edit it almost every time it likes exclamation points.
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Points more than I do.
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Um, but it's a good starting point and it cuts my time down by two thirds.
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And so I'm able to get away from my computer a lot quicker because AI starts the prompt on these emails because it reads a whole string, it contextualizes, it listens to me, it picks up my tone, but I also think there in accounting tools like carbon are also adding AI into their workflow system.
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Uh, a really cool one I was just talking about the other day was, um, Of all places, uh, spark from, uh, right works.
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Is a really good research tool within, um, within right works platform.
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And, and you don't typically think of right works that hosts, hosts, QuickBooks, desktop, and does all this stuff is ahead and AI, but they've really built a great tool and there are other companies that are out there that are doing it, that make using the tools that already exist.
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Easier,
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right?
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And I think the interesting thing about it is, is if you, and I know like this is accounting for innovation.
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So we have a very progressive listener base, but I know that there are firms out there who have banned AI in their firms, right?
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So I can date myself, but that was kind of the way the internet was banned.
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In firms when it first came out, like you weren't allowed to use the web, right?
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And so there are firms that have said, no, you're not allowed to use AI in the firm because they're very concerned about privacy.
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And, and again, I understand those concerns, but if you're not allowing your Your employees to use it.
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I guarantee they're using it on their phones anyways.
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So don't think that just because you as the firm owner is not comfortable with it or is not used to it or hasn't created a policy around what's acceptable use and what's not acceptable use of it, that your employees aren't using it themselves because.
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they're figuring out how it's saving time to do their jobs faster.
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So I think that's a really important thing to think about.
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And now back to the show.
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you mentioned customer, let's call it client success, customer service earlier.
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And there's something that we started doing that, that I think this is also impacting, by the way, I think it's extremely short sighted and sad that firms ban AI, um, like you said, it's like banning the internet that didn't work out well for them and it's not going to work out well.
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But it did happen.
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I mean, like, does it, Oh, I agree.
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Like the evolution of technology, right?
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I agree.
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And rules always evolve after technology and you should, you should be concerned about security, you should be concerned about privacy and safety and all of that stuff.
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So I'm not saying that, but I think that there are other ways that you can start to use things.
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And to do it carefully and cautiously.
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One of the things that we started doing that I think is really impactful is we have a, we use chorus to record calls and there are lots of other tools.
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There's gong, there's fathom.
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There are a million of them out there.
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I've been on calls with fireflies and fireflies, another great one.
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And, and you'll have like eight different.
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Note takers join.
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What you can do with these note takers right now is they are all integrating AI in to listen to the call and to pull out the important points post call.
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And what we've been training our staff to do is after a client call, copy and paste that into an email, edit it, make sure it's correct, send it within 15 minutes after the call.
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You are doing something that you haven't been able to do.
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You're sending a quick synopsis to dues for both sides.
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And it's a great, and it takes almost no time to do.
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And you're providing a lot more to your client in terms of just helping show that you care and understand.
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The other thing about those note takers, which I find fascinating is when.
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I like kind of always get caught in a lot of the detail, right?
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Cause like I, I follow the detail and when you see what AI comes back to as being the, like the main point, it's kind of like, well, that wasn't what I took away.
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And so it's interesting to me how the AI filters through a lot of the stuff that we don't always filter through that we kind of get sidetracked by.
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And so it's been interesting.
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To me to, to kind of align with what the AI thought was important versus what I thought was important and make me sometimes think, well, gee, is what I like focused on really what I should have been focusing on.
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And, um, it's, it's not always correct.
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But I think it's an interesting perspective from a self awareness as to like when you come out of a meeting to see what it thought was important versus what you thought was important.
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So I'm learning from the AI a lot.
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Like I see it teaching me things, which I think is, Amazing from a curiosity standpoint and a learning standpoint as to how I see the AI actually evolving me a lot better.
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And the other thing that is pretty cool is in chat GPT, you can ask it, um, like personality things about yourself.
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So you can say based on the conversations we've had, what do you think are my strengths?
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What do you think are my weaknesses?
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And then it comes back and you're like, Wow.
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And it, it, it's pretty smart too.
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Like I was like, it's like one of those personality tests and you're like, wait, how did it know so much about me?
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But if you're talking to it all the time, you know, and it doesn't hold back, it tells you exactly what it's thinking.
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So I think those have been like really interesting things for me.
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To see and learn from, you know, AI and these conversations that I've been having with the AI.
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You know, I think it's interesting is there are so many different ways that we're just now seeing AI come to light.
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And, um, and really be able to help us and a lot of times I'm very focused on the client success, sales, marketing, bookkeeping side.
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But Jody, you've got a lot more insight into a more traditional accounting market, whether it's audits or tax or whatever.
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What are some of the other places that you're seeing or see that I could have an impact?
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Well, I think if you think about it from a tax perspective, like the OCR, what we call OCR, um, which was basically, you know, you would scan a document and then it would take all that information and it would place it somewhere.
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Um, that when it's enhanced by, by AI, cause I don't think it's all AI.
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I think there's OCR and AI compared to it.
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Like, Um, the ability for the tools to read documents now are getting almost near perfect, which is like amazing.
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So when you think about tax prep or anything else that or invoices or anything else that needs, um, data being read into, into something, um, now it can isolate data a lot better.
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So let's say you read an invoice.
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It could pick up everything that's on that invoice instead of just like address being like, you know, three lines and that's the address.
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Now it like picks up that.
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The number of the address and it picks up the street and it picks up, you know, the avenue or whatever, right.
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It, it's able to like, um, break up the data a lot better.
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Right.
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And so what happens is, is when it can break up that data and can read it.
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Now, all of a sudden your database becomes 10 X more powerful because everything is its own piece of data, as opposed to, you know, a chunk.
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of data, right?
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So when you see these new tools, and I get to see a lot of stuff behind the scenes and you, um, that, but when you see how these new tools are being built and you see the ability of them to manipulate the data because of the AI and where it's going, coming.
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That's the stuff that gets me excited, right?
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But that's, but that's not every day yet, right?
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Like that's kind of future.
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Um, when I think about every day, like I love Blue Jay.
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Um, You know, I'm an advisor to them, so I take that disclosure for what it's worth, but like ask Blue Jay is tax research on steroids, right?
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Like you can ask it a question and it gives you all the tax.
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Uh, it gives you not just an answer, um, but it gives you all the documentation, all the regs, all the court cases, everything and supporting documentation behind it.
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So you can go double check it.
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And you can go figure out if it's right or wrong and you have substantiation for it.
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And in the old days, and again, this will date me, right?
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We learned how to do tax research, like, well, similar to the way you learned how to do research and legal research, Matt, like in the books and reading, you know, like having to do legal research.
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Right.
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And then like Google came around.
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And Google really didn't teach legal research the way that it was taught the way we were.
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And like a lot of people learn, I'll say half tax research, right?
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Cause they didn't really learn the, the full way of going to, to grab all the sites and all the citations and the source docs and everything else.
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Right.
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And now we're back to like it where now you can actually go back and you can read all those cases and you can really like think through it now, now for every tax situation, you don't necessarily need all that.
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But for a lot of them, it gives you a lot more opportunity to spend the time not being so worried about, did I find everything?
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But actually, you know, reading the, the cases and seeing how does it apply?
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So like when you look at research from that perspective, I mean it, it's amazing.
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I think it is.
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And look, as we've covered a lot of topics.
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And.
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You know, for, for a lot of accountants, for a lot of firm owners, it's a lot of information and you and I are barely scratching the surface here.
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We're, we're kind of giving the synopsis of the synopsis on what is available, what is coming, what you can do, any of that.
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If, if I'm somebody listening.
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If I'm an accountant, I'm a firm owner.
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I'm somebody who's interested.
00:19:00.846 --> 00:19:10.655
What are some of the best ways to really keep track of the advancements in AI and, and how I can start to implement them into my daily life?
00:19:12.316 --> 00:19:17.915
Well, I think it starts with just being aware that it's out there and like, just looking, because like all the vendors now are.
00:19:18.556 --> 00:19:19.486
Like marketing it.
00:19:19.486 --> 00:19:19.766
Right.
00:19:19.766 --> 00:19:21.885
So like you can see something that they're marketing.
00:19:21.885 --> 00:19:22.155
Right.
00:19:22.526 --> 00:19:34.596
But I also think like definitely sign up for a chat GPT or for something, um, similar to that, a tool similar to that and pay the 20 bucks or whatever it is a month.
00:19:34.605 --> 00:19:35.996
Don't go with the free version.
00:19:35.996 --> 00:19:37.246
It's worth the 20.
00:19:37.665 --> 00:19:41.655
Um, yeah, you can also get it inside of Microsoft.
00:19:41.655 --> 00:19:43.806
I think copilot's an extra 20 bucks or something.
00:19:43.806 --> 00:19:44.576
Google's got it.
00:19:44.586 --> 00:19:44.816
I.
00:19:45.546 --> 00:19:47.346
Like, they all have like the, the add-on.
00:19:47.346 --> 00:19:57.726
So, so get one of'em and just start experimenting and, and take a breath when it comes up in the new screen and it says, Hey, would you like to use AI and try it?
00:19:57.726 --> 00:19:59.226
It's not gonna blow up your machine.
00:19:59.226 --> 00:20:01.476
I know, like that was kind of the fear that I had.
00:20:01.766 --> 00:20:07.885
But like just start putting things in it and start talking to it because that's the only way you're going to learn it.
00:20:07.915 --> 00:20:14.036
It's not like people are having courses where like you like here it is and then go do it.
00:20:14.486 --> 00:20:18.506
Um, but you would actually even ask the AI to teach you how to do it.
00:20:18.506 --> 00:20:18.746
Right.
00:20:18.746 --> 00:20:25.056
If, if that's what you wanted to do, but just talk to it, like it's your friend and see what it starts spitting back out.
00:20:25.326 --> 00:20:30.286
And then realize that like, you have to learn how to have conversations with it.
00:20:30.996 --> 00:20:33.346
But the more you use it, the easier it becomes.
00:20:33.346 --> 00:20:35.246
It's not, it's not hard.
00:20:35.256 --> 00:20:38.816
It's just something you have to learn how to have a conversation with.
00:20:38.836 --> 00:20:41.306
And it's, it's the Alexa you always want it right.
00:20:41.306 --> 00:20:53.715
Like we were so disappointed in Alexa when she first came out and now like she's okay, but she's still like pretty lacking, but like chat GPT really can have a conversation back with you.
00:20:54.075 --> 00:20:57.125
Chat GPT has conversations with my children all the time.
00:20:57.625 --> 00:21:11.855
you know, one of the things as we wrap this up, that stands out to me, I used to never read product update emails from the products that I was using, whether it's front or Salesforce or Gmail or whatever, skim those from now on.
00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:23.750
Skim those for AI updates because you'll start to learn where they're integrating AI and it's worth the time not to spam them now because they're coming out with things that can be really usable for you.
00:21:24.579 --> 00:21:31.029
And number two is just start passively listening on LinkedIn or Twitter or wherever you consume.
00:21:31.519 --> 00:21:36.279
You'll find a lot of people like Jody and I, Who are talking about AI and AI and accounting.
00:21:36.829 --> 00:21:42.910
And so I think learning is the new role that if you want to start integrating AI in, it's time to start learning.
00:21:43.059 --> 00:21:50.829
And as Jody said, doing so with that, Jody, I think we've had a great conversation about how to integrate AI into daily lives.
00:21:50.866 --> 00:21:53.176
and I'm excited to see where this goes over the next few years.
00:00:00.644 --> 00:00:08.003
Welcome to the Accounting for Innovation podcast, where we explore cutting edge strategies and insights into the world of accounting and finance.
00:00:08.464 --> 00:00:14.544
Presented by Decimal and the Radical CPA, each episode dives deep into industry trends.
00:00:14.884 --> 00:00:23.164
Whether you're a seasoned professional or a budding entrepreneur, join us as we unpack key concepts and share practical tips to drive success.
00:00:26.158 --> 00:00:29.208
Integrating AI and AI in everyday life.
00:00:29.219 --> 00:00:47.488
So today I'm pretty excited because we're going to be talking about everyday uses of AI and how, um, firm owners are doing things with AI every day and what that looks like in your firm, how it should be impacting your everyday jobs, and it's not just accounting, right?
00:00:47.488 --> 00:00:53.289
Like we're going to be talking about things beyond accounting and how you can use these tools to really.
00:00:53.618 --> 00:01:03.798
Um, increase efficiency in your firm, kind of change up efficiency, make yourself, uh, I would say, uh, a lot more customer service friendly and really reduce time.
00:01:03.798 --> 00:01:18.519
I think that's the biggest thing that AI brings to us, uh, in our everyday life, even if we're not ready, quite ready yet to, you know, use it from a financial standpoint, but what are some of the tools that you can use every day in your firm?
00:01:18.968 --> 00:01:20.498
And, uh, so Matt.
00:01:20.914 --> 00:01:25.073
You know, what are you thinking about when you think about AI every day?
00:01:26.054 --> 00:01:32.313
You know, I, I kind of bucket what we all do into a few different places and you kind of hit the nail on the head.
00:01:32.364 --> 00:01:35.433
There's definitely AI in general accounting work.
00:01:35.733 --> 00:01:45.134
Hey, we get into the numbers, we get into the books, we get into the advising, whatever it is, there's that, but there's also communications and there's also research.
00:01:45.474 --> 00:01:53.733
And to me, when you talk about communications, sales, marketing, research, That's where AI can really have an immediate impact.
00:01:54.084 --> 00:01:54.694
And.
00:01:55.254 --> 00:02:03.254
I think you said it really well when you started talking about AI is being a time saver, because I think it is that.
00:02:03.274 --> 00:02:13.783
I also think it's, it's an idea generator, you know, one of the hardest things to do is get off of go in some things, talking to an accounting firm owner the other day, small firm.
00:02:14.054 --> 00:02:17.424
He's like, I wanted to get into the habit of writing a blog every two weeks.
00:02:17.774 --> 00:02:20.274
But I sit there for hours thinking about what to do.
00:02:20.433 --> 00:02:22.343
And I was like, Hey, let's pop it up.
00:02:22.343 --> 00:02:23.389
I'm Put it into chat.
00:02:23.829 --> 00:02:24.139
GPT.
00:02:24.179 --> 00:02:26.278
Let's come up with an idea for a blog.
00:02:26.628 --> 00:02:28.628
And within minutes he had something.
00:02:28.998 --> 00:02:36.778
What ended up posting looked nothing like what chat GPT did, but it got the momentum going and it got him off of go.
00:02:37.269 --> 00:02:47.209
And so I think AI is a time saver and content and writing things that traditionally accountants aren't necessarily the best at is a really good starting point.
00:02:48.394 --> 00:02:51.954
Yeah, so I think it's good from an idea perspective, right?
00:02:51.954 --> 00:02:56.984
Like if you're, um, needing clarity for things, right?
00:02:56.984 --> 00:03:09.633
Like, so a lot of times the way I use chat GPT is I'll have like things spinning in my head, which things spin all the time, but I will start to put them into prompts and I will give context around them.
00:03:09.633 --> 00:03:10.324
So like the.
00:03:10.739 --> 00:03:14.688
The way to use chat GP is the best way is to talk to it.
00:03:14.688 --> 00:03:16.389
It's just like, it's a friend, right?
00:03:16.408 --> 00:03:18.949
Like just don't think of it as prompts.
00:03:18.959 --> 00:03:25.399
Think of it as like, I'm talking to the person sitting next to you and I'm giving it all the instructions and all the detail around the instructions.
00:03:25.778 --> 00:03:29.699
And if you just kind of talk to it that way, you're going to get really good answers.
00:03:29.949 --> 00:03:46.054
So anyway, so I talked to it like it's a friend and like, I asked it for clarity around like things that I've been like kind of, I don't even want to say struggling, but just thinking about, and what happens is, is it seems to organize things in my head.
00:03:46.204 --> 00:04:11.663
Well, it's not in my head, but it's organizing things on paper that I necessarily couldn't get organized in my head without maybe taking, you know, You know, another two days to do, or like kind of really like sitting down and thinking about it, whereas I can use chat GPT to really bring clarity into my thoughts and kind of put them in like a more organized way than my thoughts.
00:04:11.903 --> 00:04:18.963
So maybe that's just my brain, but that's the way I see it as being really like an amazing help for me.
00:04:19.944 --> 00:04:32.363
Yeah, and look, one thing I did just the other day was we needed to come up with a graphic for a new kind of column and blog that we're doing, and I put into chat GPT some general thoughts around it, and it came up with something that was fine.
00:04:32.374 --> 00:04:32.934
It was okay.
00:04:32.934 --> 00:04:35.463
It was a little messy, and I gave it some more prompts.
00:04:35.514 --> 00:04:36.884
I said, Let's make it clear.
00:04:36.884 --> 00:04:40.713
Let's make it black and white, and let's make it with this title.
00:04:41.098 --> 00:04:42.069
And all of a sudden it did it.
00:04:42.218 --> 00:04:47.158
And four or five more prompts later, it got to exactly what I needed it to be.
00:04:47.778 --> 00:04:54.288
And, and I think that's where, when you, when you say talk to it, it's also criticize and help it.
00:04:54.329 --> 00:05:05.204
Think of it like that intern that works for you that comes up with the first work product and you want to be really nice to it, to the intern, and you're like, okay, When you came up with this, let's try this.
00:05:05.213 --> 00:05:06.483
Try tweaking that.
00:05:06.494 --> 00:05:07.793
Try changing this.
00:05:07.814 --> 00:05:08.894
What do you think about that?
00:05:09.334 --> 00:05:17.113
And if you treat it in that way, it can come up with really good work product for you in a way that's exceptionally beneficial.
00:05:17.814 --> 00:05:32.923
And, and I think that's just from a content, like one of the things you and I've talked a lot about is how hard it is for a lot of people that run their own accounting firm or that are doing business development to actually get out there and to do the things they need to do to generate business.
00:05:33.874 --> 00:05:36.814
And part of that can be just creating content.
00:05:37.334 --> 00:05:44.543
And a good way to do that for content is to use chat GPT as a starting point and or something like it.
00:05:44.543 --> 00:05:47.103
There are a million other things out there like chat GPT.
00:05:47.834 --> 00:05:50.184
But I use that as kind of a catch all that everybody knows.
00:05:50.184 --> 00:05:51.324
It's like Google search.
00:05:51.524 --> 00:05:53.264
You could also search on other places.
00:05:53.353 --> 00:05:53.814
Right.
00:05:53.874 --> 00:05:56.713
Well, and it too, like when you're writing emails, right?
00:05:56.774 --> 00:06:02.064
There are so many other tools too, that are starting to pop up right in the tools you're using.
00:06:02.074 --> 00:06:02.423
Right.
00:06:02.754 --> 00:06:05.584
And they have the AI like built right in.
00:06:05.994 --> 00:06:07.824
And it's funny because.
00:06:08.709 --> 00:06:15.209
For some of them, I'm a little bit like, I don't want to say nervous, but it's like, do I actually want to put something in there?
00:06:15.209 --> 00:06:15.488
Right.
00:06:15.488 --> 00:06:20.209
Like, is it, cause you know, like you're in a SAS tool and the next day, like it changes, right.
00:06:20.209 --> 00:06:22.968
And you're like, Ooh, like, should I press this button or not?
00:06:22.968 --> 00:06:27.009
I think a lot of accounts have this feeling like the whole thing's going to blow up.
00:06:27.389 --> 00:06:29.939
But, um, that, that's what I found too.
00:06:30.129 --> 00:06:39.439
Like, um, in notion, I don't know if anyone's used to using notion, but notion is, Um, basically it's like an organizer or a date timer on steroids.
00:06:39.798 --> 00:06:43.838
And I mean, I know it's more than that, but that's the way I use it as.
00:06:44.189 --> 00:06:55.468
And like, you can put in a graph, you can tell it how you want to organize like an organizational chart, and it will come up with the prettiest like boxes and.
00:06:56.764 --> 00:06:59.093
Organization and flow charts and everything.
00:06:59.124 --> 00:07:03.053
And you don't have to like sit there and move the box here and then draw the arrow.
00:07:03.053 --> 00:07:11.564
You just say, Hey, you know, this is the relationship between this entity and that entity, and, um, this is what they're going to do.
00:07:11.824 --> 00:07:14.024
And this is how it's all going to come together.
00:07:14.043 --> 00:07:14.533
And they.
00:07:14.749 --> 00:07:25.548
Build this beautiful flowchart for you that prior, I would have probably spent, I don't know, four hours and boxes and like trying to get the arrows right.
00:07:25.548 --> 00:07:31.009
Especially for people who are a little bit less PowerPoint friendly or do you know what I mean?
00:07:31.009 --> 00:07:38.048
Like, and I think that's like amazing that you don't necessarily need a person who's a PowerPoint expert now to build you something.
00:07:38.548 --> 00:07:42.959
You can do it right in, in a tool that's like you're already using.
00:07:43.434 --> 00:07:52.264
Well, and I think talking about AI already being built into tools, number one, in my email, we use front, but Google and Microsoft also have a version.
00:07:53.283 --> 00:07:56.803
I'll sometimes get done putting the kids to bed at night.
00:07:56.853 --> 00:07:58.704
And I'm like, I got 10 emails.
00:07:58.704 --> 00:08:03.264
I just need to reply to, I will immediately hit AI reply to all 10.
00:08:03.884 --> 00:08:06.153
And it creates the email for me.
00:08:06.363 --> 00:08:09.374
I'll edit it almost every time it likes exclamation points.
00:08:09.658 --> 00:08:10.588
Points more than I do.
00:08:11.459 --> 00:08:15.149
Um, but it's a good starting point and it cuts my time down by two thirds.
00:08:15.548 --> 00:08:34.278
And so I'm able to get away from my computer a lot quicker because AI starts the prompt on these emails because it reads a whole string, it contextualizes, it listens to me, it picks up my tone, but I also think there in accounting tools like carbon are also adding AI into their workflow system.
00:08:34.668 --> 00:08:42.884
Uh, a really cool one I was just talking about the other day was, um, Of all places, uh, spark from, uh, right works.
00:08:43.448 --> 00:08:48.538
Is a really good research tool within, um, within right works platform.
00:08:49.048 --> 00:09:04.077
And, and you don't typically think of right works that hosts, hosts, QuickBooks, desktop, and does all this stuff is ahead and AI, but they've really built a great tool and there are other companies that are out there that are doing it, that make using the tools that already exist.
00:09:04.239 --> 00:09:04.719
Easier,
00:09:05.719 --> 00:09:06.139
right?
00:09:06.499 --> 00:09:13.269
And I think the interesting thing about it is, is if you, and I know like this is accounting for innovation.
00:09:13.269 --> 00:09:20.418
So we have a very progressive listener base, but I know that there are firms out there who have banned AI in their firms, right?
00:09:20.418 --> 00:09:25.339
So I can date myself, but that was kind of the way the internet was banned.
00:09:25.693 --> 00:09:29.333
In firms when it first came out, like you weren't allowed to use the web, right?
00:09:29.553 --> 00:09:37.043
And so there are firms that have said, no, you're not allowed to use AI in the firm because they're very concerned about privacy.
00:09:37.043 --> 00:09:46.178
And, and again, I understand those concerns, but if you're not allowing your Your employees to use it.
00:09:46.198 --> 00:09:48.379
I guarantee they're using it on their phones anyways.
00:09:48.839 --> 00:10:06.149
So don't think that just because you as the firm owner is not comfortable with it or is not used to it or hasn't created a policy around what's acceptable use and what's not acceptable use of it, that your employees aren't using it themselves because.
00:10:07.283 --> 00:10:11.984
they're figuring out how it's saving time to do their jobs faster.
00:10:12.153 --> 00:10:15.903
So I think that's a really important thing to think about.
00:10:17.198 --> 00:10:21.908
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00:10:48.336 --> 00:10:49.929
And now back to the show.
00:10:50.321 --> 00:10:55.091
you mentioned customer, let's call it client success, customer service earlier.
00:10:55.936 --> 00:11:10.405
And there's something that we started doing that, that I think this is also impacting, by the way, I think it's extremely short sighted and sad that firms ban AI, um, like you said, it's like banning the internet that didn't work out well for them and it's not going to work out well.
00:11:11.105 --> 00:11:12.206
But it did happen.
00:11:12.206 --> 00:11:13.650
I mean, like, does it, Oh, I agree.
00:11:13.880 --> 00:11:15.791
Like the evolution of technology, right?
00:11:15.841 --> 00:11:16.441
I agree.
00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:26.370
And rules always evolve after technology and you should, you should be concerned about security, you should be concerned about privacy and safety and all of that stuff.
00:11:26.721 --> 00:11:30.980
So I'm not saying that, but I think that there are other ways that you can start to use things.
00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:34.140
And to do it carefully and cautiously.
00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:44.921
One of the things that we started doing that I think is really impactful is we have a, we use chorus to record calls and there are lots of other tools.
00:11:44.921 --> 00:11:46.100
There's gong, there's fathom.
00:11:46.100 --> 00:11:47.071
There are a million of them out there.
00:11:47.551 --> 00:11:51.850
I've been on calls with fireflies and fireflies, another great one.
00:11:52.250 --> 00:11:54.081
And, and you'll have like eight different.
00:11:54.410 --> 00:11:55.250
Note takers join.
00:11:56.150 --> 00:12:05.821
What you can do with these note takers right now is they are all integrating AI in to listen to the call and to pull out the important points post call.
00:12:06.671 --> 00:12:16.841
And what we've been training our staff to do is after a client call, copy and paste that into an email, edit it, make sure it's correct, send it within 15 minutes after the call.
00:12:17.485 --> 00:12:19.975
You are doing something that you haven't been able to do.
00:12:19.985 --> 00:12:23.485
You're sending a quick synopsis to dues for both sides.
00:12:23.816 --> 00:12:27.596
And it's a great, and it takes almost no time to do.
00:12:27.936 --> 00:12:33.605
And you're providing a lot more to your client in terms of just helping show that you care and understand.
00:12:34.735 --> 00:12:39.096
The other thing about those note takers, which I find fascinating is when.
00:12:39.321 --> 00:12:43.280
I like kind of always get caught in a lot of the detail, right?
00:12:43.291 --> 00:12:54.750
Cause like I, I follow the detail and when you see what AI comes back to as being the, like the main point, it's kind of like, well, that wasn't what I took away.
00:12:55.750 --> 00:13:04.020
And so it's interesting to me how the AI filters through a lot of the stuff that we don't always filter through that we kind of get sidetracked by.
00:13:04.331 --> 00:13:06.331
And so it's been interesting.
00:13:06.471 --> 00:13:18.711
To me to, to kind of align with what the AI thought was important versus what I thought was important and make me sometimes think, well, gee, is what I like focused on really what I should have been focusing on.
00:13:18.990 --> 00:13:22.581
And, um, it's, it's not always correct.
00:13:22.855 --> 00:13:31.596
But I think it's an interesting perspective from a self awareness as to like when you come out of a meeting to see what it thought was important versus what you thought was important.
00:13:31.885 --> 00:13:33.846
So I'm learning from the AI a lot.
00:13:34.176 --> 00:13:45.666
Like I see it teaching me things, which I think is, Amazing from a curiosity standpoint and a learning standpoint as to how I see the AI actually evolving me a lot better.
00:13:45.875 --> 00:13:53.926
And the other thing that is pretty cool is in chat GPT, you can ask it, um, like personality things about yourself.
00:13:53.946 --> 00:13:58.355
So you can say based on the conversations we've had, what do you think are my strengths?
00:13:58.355 --> 00:13:59.336
What do you think are my weaknesses?
00:13:59.336 --> 00:14:02.785
And then it comes back and you're like, Wow.
00:14:02.785 --> 00:14:04.885
And it, it, it's pretty smart too.
00:14:04.895 --> 00:14:10.655
Like I was like, it's like one of those personality tests and you're like, wait, how did it know so much about me?
00:14:10.655 --> 00:14:17.025
But if you're talking to it all the time, you know, and it doesn't hold back, it tells you exactly what it's thinking.
00:14:17.405 --> 00:14:20.870
So I think those have been like really interesting things for me.
00:14:21.030 --> 00:14:27.110
To see and learn from, you know, AI and these conversations that I've been having with the AI.
00:14:28.150 --> 00:14:36.791
You know, I think it's interesting is there are so many different ways that we're just now seeing AI come to light.
00:14:37.245 --> 00:14:45.995
And, um, and really be able to help us and a lot of times I'm very focused on the client success, sales, marketing, bookkeeping side.
00:14:45.995 --> 00:14:54.035
But Jody, you've got a lot more insight into a more traditional accounting market, whether it's audits or tax or whatever.
00:14:54.615 --> 00:14:59.936
What are some of the other places that you're seeing or see that I could have an impact?
00:15:02.115 --> 00:15:15.235
Well, I think if you think about it from a tax perspective, like the OCR, what we call OCR, um, which was basically, you know, you would scan a document and then it would take all that information and it would place it somewhere.
00:15:15.576 --> 00:15:20.875
Um, that when it's enhanced by, by AI, cause I don't think it's all AI.
00:15:20.885 --> 00:15:23.206
I think there's OCR and AI compared to it.
00:15:23.475 --> 00:15:31.166
Like, Um, the ability for the tools to read documents now are getting almost near perfect, which is like amazing.
00:15:31.355 --> 00:15:43.755
So when you think about tax prep or anything else that or invoices or anything else that needs, um, data being read into, into something, um, now it can isolate data a lot better.
00:15:43.755 --> 00:15:45.576
So let's say you read an invoice.
00:15:45.785 --> 00:15:54.586
It could pick up everything that's on that invoice instead of just like address being like, you know, three lines and that's the address.
00:15:54.586 --> 00:15:55.535
Now it like picks up that.
00:15:56.155 --> 00:16:01.015
The number of the address and it picks up the street and it picks up, you know, the avenue or whatever, right.
00:16:01.046 --> 00:16:05.005
It, it's able to like, um, break up the data a lot better.
00:16:05.005 --> 00:16:05.336
Right.
00:16:05.535 --> 00:16:09.806
And so what happens is, is when it can break up that data and can read it.
00:16:09.816 --> 00:16:18.296
Now, all of a sudden your database becomes 10 X more powerful because everything is its own piece of data, as opposed to, you know, a chunk.
00:16:18.556 --> 00:16:19.485
of data, right?
00:16:19.686 --> 00:16:37.966
So when you see these new tools, and I get to see a lot of stuff behind the scenes and you, um, that, but when you see how these new tools are being built and you see the ability of them to manipulate the data because of the AI and where it's going, coming.
00:16:38.306 --> 00:16:40.846
That's the stuff that gets me excited, right?
00:16:40.956 --> 00:16:44.576
But that's, but that's not every day yet, right?
00:16:44.576 --> 00:16:45.855
Like that's kind of future.
00:16:46.135 --> 00:16:49.946
Um, when I think about every day, like I love Blue Jay.
00:16:49.995 --> 00:16:59.331
Um, You know, I'm an advisor to them, so I take that disclosure for what it's worth, but like ask Blue Jay is tax research on steroids, right?
00:16:59.331 --> 00:17:04.050
Like you can ask it a question and it gives you all the tax.
00:17:04.181 --> 00:17:14.090
Uh, it gives you not just an answer, um, but it gives you all the documentation, all the regs, all the court cases, everything and supporting documentation behind it.
00:17:14.431 --> 00:17:16.520
So you can go double check it.
00:17:16.790 --> 00:17:21.971
And you can go figure out if it's right or wrong and you have substantiation for it.
00:17:22.310 --> 00:17:26.490
And in the old days, and again, this will date me, right?
00:17:26.740 --> 00:17:39.560
We learned how to do tax research, like, well, similar to the way you learned how to do research and legal research, Matt, like in the books and reading, you know, like having to do legal research.
00:17:39.560 --> 00:17:39.961
Right.
00:17:40.371 --> 00:17:43.590
And then like Google came around.
00:17:43.965 --> 00:17:48.865
And Google really didn't teach legal research the way that it was taught the way we were.
00:17:48.865 --> 00:17:52.746
And like a lot of people learn, I'll say half tax research, right?
00:17:52.746 --> 00:18:00.736
Cause they didn't really learn the, the full way of going to, to grab all the sites and all the citations and the source docs and everything else.
00:18:00.746 --> 00:18:01.056
Right.
00:18:01.435 --> 00:18:13.645
And now we're back to like it where now you can actually go back and you can read all those cases and you can really like think through it now, now for every tax situation, you don't necessarily need all that.
00:18:14.030 --> 00:18:23.510
But for a lot of them, it gives you a lot more opportunity to spend the time not being so worried about, did I find everything?
00:18:23.750 --> 00:18:28.701
But actually, you know, reading the, the cases and seeing how does it apply?
00:18:28.711 --> 00:18:33.461
So like when you look at research from that perspective, I mean it, it's amazing.
00:18:34.540 --> 00:18:35.121
I think it is.
00:18:35.121 --> 00:18:37.881
And look, as we've covered a lot of topics.
00:18:37.971 --> 00:18:38.611
And.
00:18:39.240 --> 00:18:46.580
You know, for, for a lot of accountants, for a lot of firm owners, it's a lot of information and you and I are barely scratching the surface here.
00:18:46.580 --> 00:18:53.750
We're, we're kind of giving the synopsis of the synopsis on what is available, what is coming, what you can do, any of that.
00:18:53.840 --> 00:18:56.121
If, if I'm somebody listening.
00:18:56.826 --> 00:18:58.945
If I'm an accountant, I'm a firm owner.
00:18:58.945 --> 00:19:00.226
I'm somebody who's interested.
00:19:00.846 --> 00:19:10.655
What are some of the best ways to really keep track of the advancements in AI and, and how I can start to implement them into my daily life?
00:19:12.316 --> 00:19:17.915
Well, I think it starts with just being aware that it's out there and like, just looking, because like all the vendors now are.
00:19:18.556 --> 00:19:19.486
Like marketing it.
00:19:19.486 --> 00:19:19.766
Right.
00:19:19.766 --> 00:19:21.885
So like you can see something that they're marketing.
00:19:21.885 --> 00:19:22.155
Right.
00:19:22.526 --> 00:19:34.596
But I also think like definitely sign up for a chat GPT or for something, um, similar to that, a tool similar to that and pay the 20 bucks or whatever it is a month.
00:19:34.605 --> 00:19:35.996
Don't go with the free version.
00:19:35.996 --> 00:19:37.246
It's worth the 20.
00:19:37.665 --> 00:19:41.655
Um, yeah, you can also get it inside of Microsoft.
00:19:41.655 --> 00:19:43.806
I think copilot's an extra 20 bucks or something.
00:19:43.806 --> 00:19:44.576
Google's got it.
00:19:44.586 --> 00:19:44.816
I.
00:19:45.546 --> 00:19:47.346
Like, they all have like the, the add-on.
00:19:47.346 --> 00:19:57.726
So, so get one of'em and just start experimenting and, and take a breath when it comes up in the new screen and it says, Hey, would you like to use AI and try it?
00:19:57.726 --> 00:19:59.226
It's not gonna blow up your machine.
00:19:59.226 --> 00:20:01.476
I know, like that was kind of the fear that I had.
00:20:01.766 --> 00:20:07.885
But like just start putting things in it and start talking to it because that's the only way you're going to learn it.
00:20:07.915 --> 00:20:14.036
It's not like people are having courses where like you like here it is and then go do it.
00:20:14.486 --> 00:20:18.506
Um, but you would actually even ask the AI to teach you how to do it.
00:20:18.506 --> 00:20:18.746
Right.
00:20:18.746 --> 00:20:25.056
If, if that's what you wanted to do, but just talk to it, like it's your friend and see what it starts spitting back out.
00:20:25.326 --> 00:20:30.286
And then realize that like, you have to learn how to have conversations with it.
00:20:30.996 --> 00:20:33.346
But the more you use it, the easier it becomes.
00:20:33.346 --> 00:20:35.246
It's not, it's not hard.
00:20:35.256 --> 00:20:38.816
It's just something you have to learn how to have a conversation with.
00:20:38.836 --> 00:20:41.306
And it's, it's the Alexa you always want it right.
00:20:41.306 --> 00:20:53.715
Like we were so disappointed in Alexa when she first came out and now like she's okay, but she's still like pretty lacking, but like chat GPT really can have a conversation back with you.
00:20:54.075 --> 00:20:57.125
Chat GPT has conversations with my children all the time.
00:20:57.625 --> 00:21:11.855
you know, one of the things as we wrap this up, that stands out to me, I used to never read product update emails from the products that I was using, whether it's front or Salesforce or Gmail or whatever, skim those from now on.
00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:23.750
Skim those for AI updates because you'll start to learn where they're integrating AI and it's worth the time not to spam them now because they're coming out with things that can be really usable for you.
00:21:24.579 --> 00:21:31.029
And number two is just start passively listening on LinkedIn or Twitter or wherever you consume.
00:21:31.519 --> 00:21:36.279
You'll find a lot of people like Jody and I, Who are talking about AI and AI and accounting.
00:21:36.829 --> 00:21:42.910
And so I think learning is the new role that if you want to start integrating AI in, it's time to start learning.
00:21:43.059 --> 00:21:50.829
And as Jody said, doing so with that, Jody, I think we've had a great conversation about how to integrate AI into daily lives.
00:21:50.866 --> 00:21:53.176
and I'm excited to see where this goes over the next few years.
