Why AI? Why Now? And How?

Hello my friends, it's me Seth!

Why AI? Why now?

There have been so many disruptors. Most don’t last. Some do. Some that do, wind up completely changing the landscape of an industry.?

AI is arguably disrupting almost every industry.

Some say AI won’t take your job, but someone using it will.

Then Gene Marks wrote this article on Forbes which point blank calls it out:

AI IS taking people’s jobs, and it will take more.

5 Examples Of How Brands Are Replacing Their Employees With AI

Spoiler alert!

He says it’s ok. This is not the first time this has happened, but it may be the fastest it’s ever happened!

We’ve already seen the implementation of many tools to “automate” processes to make them both faster and more accurate. To increase both efficiency and accuracy at the same time is the ultimate win.?

The first thing to come to mind here is Zapier. And actually well before that there was Ifttt (If This Then That). Now there are many others.?

Ai is just a clear logical next evolution of tech and information management.

Everything is getting smarter. And it should.

So where does smarter technology leave us?

And How?

We can become the operators of the tech. In this vein that means prompt engineering for sure. But it also might mean just generally using it for all kinds of things.?

In the last couple of weeks I gave you very specific examples of what you can do and how.?

Have you tried any of this out?

Because honestly if you are just reading my content, and looking and thinking, “oh that’s really cool” then you’re not getting the real benefit that I intend for you to get.?

The only way you’re going to figure out how to use this stuff is by using this stuff. And the more you do that, the more you will get ideas for how to use it.?

In the past week, inspired by what I shared with you, I used ChatGPT to create an image for my Notion Page for a client. This may seem like a dumb thing, but the point of it is that it enhances my experience since EVERYTHING I manage for a client is in Notion, and if I share that page with my client they will see it too.?

Have you tried exporting a client’s financial statements into ChatGPT and asking it to analyze them? Take the client’s name off the reports for confidentiality. Then do this. You will be blown away by the results you get.

In one of my recent articles I gave you a list of apps to checkout for various purposes? Have you looked that over? Have you thought about which of those might be useful to you? Have you set aside time in your schedule to do some research on this stuff?

Need to see these articles again?

Here you go:

• Practical AI - Actionable Insights to Streamline Your Accounting Practice
• Leveraging AI in Accounting
• AI and Gotham Tactical Supply

A lot of people are using ChatGPT purely as a writing tool. To help write emails etc… But there is so much more. And much of what you figure out about ways to use it is going to be based on you spending time using it.?

It’s a lot like talking to a person where you can exchange ideas. And once you get that conversation going, ideas just come out.

For example I was prompting it to help me get ideas for how to outline a process for a “year end review” project.?

One of the things it mentioned was to write up “initial observations.”

Curiosity is going to be your super power here.?

So I asked it to make up some data and write up an example of what that might look like (this took maybe 30 seconds to produce):

Initial Observations

Date: December 5, 2024

Created By: Analyst

Summary:

• Overall Financial Health: The company shows a strong financial position with a significant increase in net income compared to the previous year.
• Revenue Growth: There was a 15% increase in revenue year-over-year, primarily driven by new client acquisitions and expanded services.
• Expense Management: Operating expenses have increased by 8%, which is lower than the revenue growth rate, indicating improved operational efficiency.

Detailed Observations:

1. Income Statement:
2. Balance Sheet:
3. Cash Flow Statement:

Potential Areas of Concern:

• Receivables Management: Accounts receivable turnover has slowed slightly, indicating a potential need for improved collections processes.
• Expense Control: While operating expenses are under control, there is room for optimizing marketing and R&D expenditures to maximize ROI.

Recommendations:

1. Enhance Receivables Management: Implement stricter credit policies and improve collections processes to accelerate cash inflows.
2. Optimize Operating Expenses: Review marketing and R&D spend to ensure alignment with strategic objectives and improve cost efficiency.
3. Monitor Debt Levels: Keep a close watch on the new line of credit to maintain a healthy debt-to-equity ratio and avoid over-leveraging.

Now you have a template for this which I of course have stored in the Notes section of my sample project. This is how I keep things organized, categorized, and easily referenced.?

Oh and now that we’re looking at Notion, Notion has a really good AI add-on.

I’ve had it take my very scrappy meeting notes and clean them up with one simple prompt on the same page where the notes are and I get a beautifully formatted outline that I can share with my clients.

“Can you clean up the notes above using callouts and toggles where you see fit?”

Try taking notes in Notion at your next meeting, or better yet, copy and paste your notes from Otter.ai (or whichever assistant you use with Zoom) and then ask Notion AI to clean it up. Be as detailed as you like in your prompt. Play with different prompts to see what you get and what you like.?

Use ChatGPT to help you build a database

Do you have information you want to compile in a database so you can easily report and pivot on that data? Start by feeding that data into ChatGPT. You can give it a prompt to ask it to store the information you are about to copy and paste. Tell it to keep it in a table format, define the columns, and so on.?

Or ask ChatGPT to put the database together for you based on searching the internet.?

For example when I asked it to help me prepare an outline for a year end review I mentioned that one of my databases was for bookmarks, so it gave me a list of sites I might want to include in my bookmarks for this project:

Now initially I asked for this in table format.

And you can easily copy and paste that into Google Sheets.

But you can also ask ChatGPT to prepare the data in a downloadable format and you will get a dos-like dialogue with the data in csv format. There will be a copy option. When you paste it into Google Sheets, it will come out in one column.

Then click Data and then Split Text to Columns and it will instantly clean it up for you. Then you can import or copy and paste as needed into a database like the one in Notion one you can see above.

I hope this gives you some more practical ideas so you can get to work and play with this stuff. Playing is how you will learn the most, and the fastest!