204. Out-of-the-gate A.I. strategies, with Don Tomoff

Future-Proof

It's great time to talk about A.I. - the 1 year anniversary of ChatGPT just passed which set this whole artificial intelligence ride in motion. While A.I. has been around since the 1950s, it's exponential growth is really marked this past year both with the release of ChatGPT and Google's announcement of their own A.I. model, Gemini. Not long after, lawmakers in the European Union approved the A.I. Act which sets a new global benchmark for countries seeking to harness the benefits of A.I. while trying to protect against it's possible risks such as automating jobs, speaking misinformation, and endangering national security.

While I was at the 2023 Digital CPA Conference, I gained some great tips from sources about how A.I. "newbies" can get started in meaningful and productive ways. Here are some simple steps from keynote speaker, Pascal Finette:

• Learn about it - simple enough but important to fill the gap between what we know and what we should know (listening to this episode is a great start)
• Start small and build projects quickly - learn firsthand what is possible with this technology
• Apply your experience to larger projects - use those smaller projects to inform what you can do with larger projects (crawl. walk. run.)

Another step-by-step resource to get you started is the "Generative A.I. Toolkit" for CPAs, recently released by CPA.com, which includes 7 steps for building your A.I. strategy:

1. Experiment
2. Focus on the near term
3. Consider client expectations
4. Research what solution providers are building
5. Define acceptable use
6. Put the technology's best feature to work
7. Ensure that humans maintain a key role in the process

These tips are a great foundation for our episode this week as I speak with Don Tomoff, Director at Invenio Advisors, LLC and longtime friend of MACPA. Don shares his wealth of knowledge and experience in the field of A.I. and explains which steps CPAs should take right from the outset.

Resources

• Wired article, "Google’s Gemini Is the Real Start of the Generative AI Boom" by Will Knight
• Generative A.I. Toolkit from CPA.com
• Don Tomoff, LinkedIn Profile