Topic:  Artificial Intelligence: Game-Changing Force in Financial Operations 
Speaker:  Matt Vaadi, Founder and CEO of guHRoo Payroll & HR 

CPE credit: 1.0 hour will be given to all participants requesting it, and who are present for at least 50 minutes of the presentation

Presentation:
Artificial Intelligence: two simple words... a powerful concept... a mystery to some people, but to others a source of creativity and potential going beyond anything that humans by themselves have been able to do in the past.

"AI" is coming into its own in a way long doubted by many, but long predicted by many others. When 2023 is over, it's entirely possible that AI could be designated Time Magazine's Person of the Year... and that the moniker "Person of the Year" itself may have to be renamed!

What is AI? There are countless definitions, each capturing different aspects and nuances of what it is. Simply put, AI is the capability of machines, generally computers, to reason through and deal with data, and produce meaningful and useful output, in ways that simulate the way the smartest humans can do those things, and to do them faster and in higher volumes than those smart humans can do.

Some of the early roots of modern AI evolved from the pioneering work by British military intelligence in World War II in cracking the previously-uncrackable German military codes. Other work came from the first computers programmed to b able to play checkers -- and win -- against the best human competitors. Many folks declared then that checkers was one thing, but a computer would never be able to beat a human chess grandmaster, because of the complexities and nuances involved in the strategies and tactics of winning a chess game.

That thinking lasted until 1996, when international chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov agreed to take on IBM's "Deep Blue", a machine painstakingly programmed specifically to play chess. Deep Blue won the first of the six-game series, sending shockwaves through the intellectual world... though Kasparov, considered by many to be not only the world's greatest chess player but the greatest chess player the world had EVER seen, then came back to win enough subsequent games to win the tournament. But then Deep Blue, calling through its handles for a rematch the following year, came back to win the rematch, with Kasparov throwing in the towel partway through the last game of the six-game tournament.

And the world of AI has since gone far beyond that. AI today is used in many aspects of modern society affecting hundreds of millions of people and billions of dollars. It is used to great advantage in such things as disparate as stock trading, mapmaking, handwriting recognition for mail delivery, message crafting to shareholders, military logistics, spam filtering on our PCs, facial and voice recognition, pattern recognition in intelligence gathering... the list is endless, and growing.

So what can AI do for us humble financial executives?

Matt Vaadi is going to teach us the meaning and use of terms such as "generative AI", and get us familiar with some of the capabilities of such programs as ChatGPT and other such platforms. He will make us feel more comfortable, and less fearful, of how we can use such platforms and what we have to do in order to use them.

By the end of this session, we will have gotten:

 •  AI Demystified: What exactly is AI and why should you care? 

 •  Real-World Applications: How top-tier firms and your finance peers are already leveraging AI to outperform. 

 •  Security 101: Navigating the labyrinth of AI and data security without breaking a sweat. 

 •  Quick Wins: Actionable prompts that you can implement immediately to start reaping the benefits of AI.

 •  Essential Toolkit: Discover the top five AI tools that can turbocharge your efficiency starting today.

More than just a webinar, this will be a one-of-a-kind session that promises not just to inform, but to transform. You'll walk away with valuable insights that can save you time, ramp up your productivity, and elevate the quality of your financial operations. This will be the innovation injection your workflow has been waiting for.　

About our speaker:

Matt Vaadi is a business entrepreneur, a company CEO and a social entrepreneur. Matt serves as CEO of guHRoo Payroll & HR, an HR software and outsourcing firm in Columbia, South Carolina. GuHRoo provides small and medium-sized businesses with simple software and expert support for payroll, benefits, human resources and HR compliance. GuHRoo helps their client companies through the full range of HR services, from hiring, onboarding, training and all ongoing aspects of HR management. In his own company and in those of his clients, he is a strong adherent to the philosophy of ongoing staff development through a coaching culture and continuous employee feedback and growth.

Matt has been working in the payroll and HR space since 2003. He is passionate about creating better workplaces and helping small businesses grow. He is a best-selling author of the book “Ping-Pong is Not a Strategy: How to Create an Awesome Organizational Culture”.

Matt brings that same passion to his social entrepreneurship, with his attention focused focused on alleviating homelessness in South Carolina. He accomplishes this mission by donating three percent of all revenue from his companies to local charities focused on addressing this need.

Matt's formal education was from the State University of New York at Oswego and the University of South Carolina's Moore School of Business. In his spare time, he serves as Chairman of the Board of Build Carolina, focused on advancing South Carolina’s tech community through demand-driven training, connection and support. He also serves as a member of the board of the Independent Payroll Providers Association.

  
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To Attend:
Meetings are for members, prospective members and invited guests only. For non-members, RSVP is required by writing to chapter chair, Dan Ruchman at [email protected]. Please include a one or two sentence description of who you are, and your interest in attending the meeting. Thank you.

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CPE Credits: Reminder for those members maintaining their professional certifications - we offer the documentation for Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits for our speaker presentations. For those members interested in this, you must attend at least 50 minutes of the speaker's presentation for 1.0 hours of CPE credit.

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