• Practice Management - QuickRead Top Story

    5 Thoughts on Thought Leadership: It is About Positioning

    September 17, 2025

    In this article, Rod Burkert reflects on the value and limits of thought leadership, how to position oneself or the firm, and ways that AI can help bolster the positioning effort. Ok. First, I am not a fan of the term “thought leadership” … or its predecessor, “content marketing” (so 2010s) … or the latest I’ve heard, “being a sage.” But let’s proceed with “thought leadership,” and if you know what I’m talking about, we are good to go! Pick a Niche, Build a Thought Leadership Platform Around It, and Own It One of the most overlooked opportunities in BVFLS…

  • Artificial Intelligence

    Autonomous AI Agents are Here! And They Are Easy to Implement!

    July 30, 2025

    Use ChatGPT’s newly released agents to automate every task you can define. ChatGPT’s new AI agents are purpose-built digital assistants designed to handle specific tasks autonomously, making them a powerful tool for business consultants. These agents can research competitors, summarize client documents, generate reports, follow workflows, or even respond to e-mails; all with minimal input. For consultants juggling multiple clients and projects, AI agents can act like virtual team members, saving hours of manual work and helping you deliver faster, smarter results. Now it is your turn to create your own autonomous AI agent. Post your ideas below the video…

  • Financial Forensics - Litigation Consulting - QuickRead Top Story

    The Evolution of Fraudulent Schemes: Increased Misuse and Sophistication of AI to Commit Digital Fraud

    July 16, 2025

    The level of sophistication used by fraudsters continues to increase. Fraudsters are using voice recognition and voice swapping, as well as other generative AI tools that continue to evolve. It is critical to constantly reassess internal controls and understand how AI is used and misused. In this article, the author shares some of the schemes used and issues a challenge to entities as well as to accounting and fraud examiners. At this point, the idea of artificial intelligence (AI) generating content is nothing new. You have likely seen plenty of videos and pictures of AI-generated content on Facebook, YouTube, etc.…

  • Artificial Intelligence

    Create a Pricing Calculator for Your Services with AI

    July 16, 2025

    Use Canva and ChatGPT to Create a Pricing Calculator you can use on your website. AI is changing the game when it comes to coding. Now, even if you do not know a thing about programming, you can still bring your ideas to life. With AI-powered tools, all you need to do is describe what you want and the AI will handle the code for you. It is as simple as telling the system what you need—whether it is building a website, creating an app, or automating a task—and watching the AI turn your request into functional code. This opens…

  • Artificial Intelligence

    U.S. Copyright Office Clarifies AI-Created Content: Human Touch Still Required

    June 17, 2025

    Copyright Office Clarifies AI-Created Content In a much-anticipated clarification, the U.S. Copyright Office has officially ruled that works involving artificial intelligence (AI) can be eligible for copyright protection, but only when a human hand plays a meaningful role in shaping the final result. In short, AI can assist, but it cannot claim authorship. What Counts and What Does Not According to the Copyright Office’s latest guidance, the key to copyright eligibility lies in human creativity. If a person uses an AI tool to generate raw content—such as text, images, music, or video—that alone is not enough. Simply inputting a prompt…

  • Artificial Intelligence

    Using AI to Create a Financial Plan With ChatGPT 4o

    June 4, 2025

    An AI prompt to help you create a financial plan. This last week, I presented an AI webinar for NACVA called “AI Prompt Engineering: How to Get Better Results from AI for Your Consulting Practice” I showed attendees all my favorite tricks and frameworks for getting the most from ChatGPT and other LLMs. Someone from the audience asked if AI could create a financial plan but I simply ran out of time to show her how I would do it. So this week, I am sharing a prompt you could customize to fit your needs with a few adjustments. I…

  • Financial Forensics - QuickRead Top Story

    Is Bitcoin a Ponzi Scheme According to Charles Ponzi? Conversations with ChatGPT

    May 28, 2025

    In this article, the author discusses the conversation she had with ChatGPT regarding Bitcoin and Ponzi schemes. This question has been around nearly as long as Bitcoin itself (without the Charles Ponzi qualifier). How could I have a conversation with Charles Ponzi? Perhaps ChatGPT has ingested enough material about the historical figure to do it for me. I initiated a new conversation with ChatGPT and asked, “Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme?” The short answer it gave was no and the model provided some reasons but they are boring. I then responded, “Give me more specific answers designed for a legal…

  • Artificial Intelligence

    10 High-Impact, Practical Ways Consultants Can Use AI to Improve Efficiency by 50% or More

    May 21, 2025

    This article reviews 10 ways you can use AI in your consulting firm to improve efficiency. I have a lot of people tell me that AI is pretty cool but ask, how can I use it to boost the efficiency of my consulting practice? It is easy to get caught up in the hype of new technology, but there really are some immediate benefits that you can implement quickly to have more time with family and friends and less time at the office. Here is my list: AI-Powered Proposal and Report Generation Use Case: Automate the creation of consulting proposals,…

  • Financial Forensics - Litigation Consulting - QuickRead Top Story

    Reducing Privacy Fine Exposure on the Cheap: (With the Help of ChatGPT)

    May 14, 2025

    In this article, the author provides three versions of a data retention policy that appears compliant with GDPR or NIST. After taking NACVA’s cybersecurity course, a student reached out to me asking for a Data Retention Policy template that would be compliant with the statutes and frameworks discussed in the course, such as the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework or the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). I thought this may be a good question for large language models because the subject matter is old enough that there is a sufficiently large amount of material available…

  • Practice Management - QuickRead Top Story

    AI Managed My Work Schedule for Two Weeks and My Productivity Doubled

    May 7, 2025

    How can one materially improve productivity in just two weeks? In this article, the author describes how she allowed artificial intelligence to start managing her work schedule. What happened next surprised her: the author gained nearly two hours a day and doubled her weekly task completion rate. I am a single mom with two kids under three years old. I work full-time as a forensic accountant and economic damages analyst. I also own several rental properties—most of which are under construction at any given time—and I serve as my own general contractor. That means I juggle everything from client calls…

  • Artificial Intelligence

    Exposing Weaknesses in AI

    May 7, 2025

    Today, I am taking a risk. A risk of exposing weaknesses in AI and applying it to the business valuation profession. So, follow along with my experiment and let’s see what happens. First of all, you should know that I have the paid version of ChatGPT ($20/month) and I used the 4o model for my test. Since I am a tech wizard and not a CVA, I started simple. Prompt #1: What kind of data do you need to calculate DCF? Here was the response from ChatGPT. Prompt #2: Yes, could you give me a downloadable DCF template and then…

  • Artificial Intelligence

    AI Keeps Leaping! Gemini 2.5 Pro EXP Shines and Your Shortcut to Staying Current

    April 9, 2025

    Just like I predicted in my last post, the AI chatbot race is heating up, with models leapfrogging each other constantly! This time, Google’s new Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental made a splash, and based on my own quick test, it is impressively capable. [Check it out here: https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini/pro/] Putting Gemini 2.5 Pro to the Test I gave it a real-world challenge: write Python code to pull data from a CSV file into an MSSQL database. Honestly, it blew me away. In roughly five minutes, it churned out 379 lines of code that worked; needing just one tiny fix that it…

  • Artificial Intelligence

    AI: The Invisible Power Behind the Screen

    March 26, 2025

    Just like flipping a switch to turn on a light, most of us do not think about what had to happen to make that light turn on. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already become as effortless as a light switch. You type a prompt into ChatGPT or Copilot, and it returns an answer, yet you likely have no idea how it works or what went into making it function. Unlike understanding electricity or the internet, grasping AI requires a foundational knowledge of its mechanics. While the full explanation is more complex than I can cover here, let’s break down some basics.…

  • Case Law - QuickRead Top Story

    Legal Update: March 2025 | Matter of Weber—Challenges to a Trustee’s Accounting Go Awry

    March 26, 2025

    Serving as a Trustee of a Trust is difficult. In the case presented, a trust beneficiary alleged that the trustee—his aunt—breached her fiduciary duty. The trust beneficiary retained an expert in connection to this claim and this did not go well for either the beneficiary or damages expert. The article summarizes the case, provides a road map and an admonition to experts in these types of cases regarding what is needed, and the perils of using AI. British mathematician, Hannah Fry, once said, “People are often quite lazy. We like taking the easy way out …” In Matter of Weber,…

  • Litigation Consulting - QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Unimpeachably Neutral Professional Judgment: Is AI the Death of Professional Judgment or its Reincarnation

    March 19, 2025

    Only with careful oversight and the application of seasoned professional judgment can AI deliver results that are not only accurate but also defensible and unimpeachably neutral. This article in the Unimpeachable Neutrality Series explores the indispensable role of professional judgment, particularly as it intertwines with the capabilities of AI. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought a seismic shift to the field of valuation and forensic accounting. Data that once required weeks of meticulous analysis can now be processed in mere minutes. While AI’s outputs relative to financial modelling can be impressive, their reliability hinges on the neutrality and…

  • Artificial Intelligence

    Future Forward: AI Insights Not to Be Ignored

    March 5, 2025

    In 1997, I was invited to be a guest speaker at a local heavy equipment dealers association dinner at Tuscany in Salt Lake City. The dinner was amazing, but then it was my turn to speak about the changing landscape of this new thing called the “Internet.” I explained that e-commerce would disrupt everything. I told them the day would come when anyone would be able to buy heavy equipment online. I was basically laughed off the stage as they explained why this would never happen with heavy equipment. Well, here is the mini excavator I just ordered completely online.…

  • Practice Management - QuickRead Top Story

    Data Privacy for the Future: Strategies to Limit Digital Risk and Liability

    February 26, 2025

    In this article, the author looks back at predictions made in the 2014 Pew Research. Reflecting on this study, it becomes self-evident that we understand what the problems are, and, perhaps, we even have good ideas of how to tackle these problems. Therefore, the issue is not necessarily “finding a solution” but rather, having the will and desire to implement a solution. Introduction A person’s perspectives and perceptions towards a problem drives the approach taken to solve that problem. Managing data privacy challenges are no different. Therefore, to address today’s issues, it is a worthwhile exercise to review some past…

  • Practice Management - QuickRead Top Story

    Should AI be Disclosed? Recognize Ethical and Professional Standards of Using AI

    February 13, 2025

    AI is pervasive and promises to fundamentally transform business operations, education, and daily life. However, functional insights bridging the gap between AI and our industry have been lacking. The authors share their views on the ethical and professional standards implicated from the use of AI in forensics and valuation engagements. This article explores the need for, or lack thereof, to disclose the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the fields of business valuation and financial forensics. AI is pervasive and promises to fundamentally transform business operations, education, and daily life. However, functional insights bridging the gap between AI and…

  • Forensic Accounting - QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Detecting AI-Generated Content: How Forensic Accountants and Business Valuation Professionals Can Give AI a “Run for its Money”

    January 22, 2025

    As AI proliferates, business valuation and forensic accountants will need to distinguish between human-authored and AI assisted/generated content. Significantly, AI generated content, as of the date of writing, is not accurate. In this article, the author examines what the above will mean to forensic accountants and business valuation analysts. With the rise of content generated by artificial intelligence (AI), it makes sense that there would also be an increase in online tools that can detect AI-generated content. What does this mean for professionals in the forensic accounting and business valuation fields? As AI writing tools like ChatGPT gain popularity, distinguishing…

  • QuickRead Top Story - Valuation/Appraisal

    Meet IBISWorld’s New AI Tool “Phil” A New Method of Doing Research

    January 8, 2025

    The introduction of AI tools has empowered companies to streamline complex tasks, enhance accuracy, and offer real-time insights. One such company, IBISWorld, a leader in industry research, has taken a significant step forward with the introduction of its AI tool, “Phil.” This article explores the impact it will have on professionals working in business valuation, forensic accounting, and business consulting fields. As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to transform industries, market research is one of the fields most poised to benefit from these advancements. The introduction of AI tools has empowered companies to streamline complex tasks, enhance accuracy, and offer real-time…