Workiva 2025: AI & the Future of the Office of the CFO


Hello Workiva partners, friends, & colleagues!
Surprise! AI took notes for me as I presented the AI & the Future of the Office of the CFO keynote with all of you at your virtual event last week! Here are  those notes. I hope they help you on your AI journey. Below you’ll find a few things which may be helpful:

– the AI NOTES from our talk transcribed by Otter.ai
– a downloadable
PDF SUMMARY of the most important slides from my talk

Thank you so much for allowing me to share my thoughts on AI with you!
Please let me know how I can be helpful in the future!
Dan

Dan Chuparkoff

A.I. & Innovation Keynote Speaker
CEO, Reinvention Labs
AI Educator & Innovation Expert from
Google, McKinsey, & Atlassian

PDF SUMMARY of key slides from Dan’s AI talk

This “Slide Cheatsheet” was customized for your specific talk. It’s designed to help audience-members like you, by wrapping my AI & the Future of Everything keynote into an easy-to-skim, easy-to-share, or easy-to-print resource for future reference.

Download the 3 page
high-resolution PDF here:

Hope you find it helpful!

AI NOTES from Dan’s Keynote

*These notes were created automatically by Otter.ai. Transcription errors or mistakes have not been fixed
in order to demonstrate the current state of AI notes.


Summary

Dan Chuparkoff discussed the transformative impact of AI on work, emphasizing its role in enhancing efficiency and decision-making. He shared his personal journey from a challenging upbringing to leading at Google, highlighting a pivotal moment in 1987 when he discovered AutoCAD. Chuparkoff explained AI's current capabilities, such as generative AI models like ChatGPT and Copilot, and their limitations, including low confidence and potential errors. He encouraged leveraging AI for tasks like meeting notes and language translation to free up time for higher-level problem-solving and decision-making. Chuparkoff also stressed the importance of human oversight and critical thinking in AI's application.

Action Items

[ ] Investigate how AI can be leveraged in your specific accounting/finance role and industry.

[ ] Experiment with different AI models like ChatGPT Pro to understand their capabilities.

[ ] Implement AI-powered tools for tasks like meeting notes, email drafting, and language translation.

[ ] Maintain oversight and review of AI-generated outputs to ensure accuracy and alignment with your professional responsibilities.

Outline

Dan Chuparkoff's Introduction and AI Transformation

  • Dan Chuparkoff thanks attendees and emphasizes the importance of AI in today's world.

  • He shares his background, starting from a challenging upbringing in Tampa, Florida, to becoming a leader at Google with 2 billion daily users.

  • Dan recounts his transformative experience with technology, specifically a moment in 1987 when he encountered Mr. Pak, an architect using AutoCAD, which drastically sped up his work.

  • He discusses how new technologies like AI will continue to revolutionize work, communication, and problem-solving, making people 1000 times faster.

The Evolution of Technology and AI

  • Dan explains how various technologies, from PCs to the internet and cloud, have significantly changed the way we work.

  • He introduces generative AI as the latest technology that will become an integral part of work, communication, and problem-solving.

  • Dan highlights the common misconception of AI as a magical entity in the cloud, emphasizing that AI is essentially a database of information.

  • He aims to demystify AI and help people understand its practical applications and limitations.

Understanding AI's Limitations and Biases

  • Dan uses an exercise to illustrate how AI predicts the next word in a sentence, showing that AI relies on consensus and statistical probabilities.

  • He explains that AI's confidence in its answers is often low, and it can sometimes be wrong or uncertain.

  • Dan discusses the importance of understanding AI's biases and limitations, which are influenced by the data it was trained on.

  • He emphasizes the need for users to verify AI's answers and ask for sources and confidence levels.

AI as a Tool and the Role of Human Decision-Making

  • Dan compares AI to an intern, suggesting that users should review and verify AI's work, similar to how one would with an intern.

  • He discusses the importance of human decision-making, which is influenced by memories and hopes, not just intelligence.

  • Dan explains that AI will augment human capabilities but will never replace the unique decision-making abilities of humans.

  • He encourages users to leverage AI as a tool to make better, more informed decisions and to continuously improve their work.

AI in Specific Industries: Accounting and Finance

  • Dan shares insights from ChatGPT about how AI will transform the work of people in accounting and finance.

  • He lists 10 specific ways AI will impact the industry, including hyper-automated accounts payable, real-time fraud detection, and predictive climate risk modeling.

  • Dan encourages users to ask AI how their specific roles will change and to explore AI's capabilities in their respective industries.

  • He highlights the importance of staying informed and leveraging AI to drive growth and innovation in their organizations.

AI's Impact on Communication and Collaboration

  • Dan discusses how AI will revolutionize communication and collaboration, making meetings more efficient and searchable.

  • He introduces Hey Jen, a product that translates recordings into multiple languages, enabling global collaboration.

  • Dan emphasizes the importance of AI in democratizing access to information and education, making it easier for people to learn and communicate in their native languages.

  • He predicts that AI will significantly change the landscape of marketing, customer service, and organizational knowledge.

The Future of Work with AI

  • Dan outlines the hierarchy of human expertise, identifying communication, processing, investigation, problem-solving, decision-making, and imagination as key components of work.

  • He explains that AI will handle the bottom layers of work, freeing up humans to focus on higher-level tasks like problem-solving and decision-making.

  • Dan predicts that AI will make work more efficient and allow people to tackle harder problems and imagine better strategies.

  • He encourages users to embrace AI as a tool to enhance their professional and personal growth.

AI's Role in Enhancing Professional Skills

  • Dan discusses how AI can help users write better project briefs, emails, and code, making their work more concise and persuasive.

  • He highlights AI's capabilities in generating images, translating languages, and automating repetitive tasks.

  • Dan encourages users to ask AI for help in improving their professional skills and to continuously explore new ways to leverage AI.

  • He emphasizes the importance of reviewing AI's work and verifying its accuracy to ensure high-quality outcomes.

AI's Ethical Considerations and Legal Responsibilities

  • Dan shares a court case where a lawyer used ChatGPT to find examples of cases, illustrating the importance of verifying AI's accuracy.

  • He discusses the ethical considerations of using AI, emphasizing the need for users to ensure that AI's work meets the same standards as their own.

  • Dan highlights the legal responsibilities of professionals using AI, particularly in fields like law, where the quality of work is crucial.

  • He encourages users to approach AI with caution and to always maintain their professional integrity.

The Future of AI and Its Impact on Organizations

  • Dan predicts that AI will continue to evolve and become more integrated into various aspects of work and life.

  • He emphasizes the importance of staying informed and adapting to new AI technologies to drive organizational growth and innovation.

  • Dan encourages users to explore AI's capabilities and to continuously improve their skills to leverage AI effectively.

  • He concludes by highlighting the transformative potential of AI and its role in shaping the future of work and collaboration.

Thank you!