You know we are always seeking innovative ways to improve our services and provide greater value to you. Recently, we've integrated various AI tools like ChatGPT, AskBlueJ, and VidIQ into our operations. Here’s how these technologies benefit you and how we ensure your data remains secure.
Enhancing Our Services
AI helps us streamline routine tasks, allowing our team to focus more on delivering personalized, high-value advice. As early as 2018, Samantha started to use Mindbridge AI in our audit processes to identify risk, and has been recognized at the national level for pioneering our profession's audit standards for its use. And last fall, Sam and Barrett went through a pilot program by the Maryland Association of CPAs to train other state CPAs how to use AI in their firms. We've since sent a number of our staff through as well.
ChatGPT assists us by summarizing marketing information, identifying new content to produce (and often helps write the first drafts*). AskBlueJ has now replaced our previous tax research tool, providing for conversational search experience and making sure we reference the correct tax code when advising you. VidIQ assisted in launching our Youtube channel last year, identifying trending topics and most searched terms for us to address. Most of our Zoom meetings are now accompanied by Zoom's AI Companion, helping to summarize next actions from the discussion to keep us accountable.
Prioritizing Data Security
We understand that the use of AI might raise concerns about data security. Protecting your information remains our top priority. We use the same password and login security as we do with all of our platforms, and require all tools that might interact with client data to be subject to the highest grade of SOC 2 audit. We also pay for an enterprise account, which ensures that our questions and responses are not used external by ChatGPT to train their technology. We've also addressed the use of AI in our company policies, ensuring our staff interacts with AI tools responsibly and that sensitive information is never compromised.
Ethical and Responsible AI Use
Our leadership is committed to using AI ethically and responsibly. We see AI as a tool to support our professionals, not replace them. Staying ahead on the technology will ensure we're in the best position to continue to provide the personalized touch and professional judgment that you expect from us.
We are excited about the future and the opportunities that AI presents. We believe these technologies will allow us to offer you a faster, more accurate, and higher level service. Most importantly, we also feel it is our responsibility to understand this technology so we can advise you on its use to make your work better and more profitable.
We invite you to reach out with any questions or concerns about our use of AI, along with any questions about what you should and shouldn't do as you begin to interact with it yourself. Your trust is important to us, and we are here to ensure you feel confident in the advice we provide.
*This blog post was initially written by prompts from Barrett Young, then edited. Approximately 70% of the content and its structure was retained.
