Free Course: Generative AI in Finance

FAQs

• Is this course suitable for finance professionals with no AI background?

  Yes - the course is designed for finance and accounting professionals who want to use AI in their work rather than for AI specialists entering finance. Every concept is explained in terms that make sense to finance practitioners, and the demos use real financial scenarios rather than abstract examples.

• What AI tools are used in the demos?

  The course uses ChatGPT, Claude, and Excel AI across different lessons, reflecting the reality that finance professionals will encounter multiple tools in organizational AI adoption rather than a single platform. Each tool is used for the tasks it handles most effectively in a finance context.

• What is covered in the prompting for finance lesson?

  Lesson 04 covers how to structure prompts for financial analysis tasks, including how to frame prompts for accuracy, how to use AI for Excel-based analysis, and how to protect sensitive financial data when working with AI tools. It includes demos on P&L commentary generation and expense compliance analysis using Excel AI.

• Does this course cover AI for risk management?

  Yes - Lesson 06 covers AI applications in audit and risk in detail, including what AI can flag in finance reviews, how AI supports AML and KYC processes while maintaining appropriate human oversight, and how risk scoring works with AI-generated intelligence and practical prompts.

• What is a management variance narrative and is it covered in this course?

  A management variance narrative is the written analysis that explains why actual financial results differ from budget or forecast - one of the most time-consuming reporting tasks in FP&A. Yes, Lesson 06 includes a demo that analyzes a transaction dataset and generates a management variance narrative using AI, showing how this task can be accelerated significantly.

• What are the key AI risks in finance covered in this course?

  Lesson 07 covers the AI risks most relevant to finance: hallucination producing inaccurate financial figures, data privacy risks when financial information is entered into AI tools, over-reliance that bypasses necessary human review, and compliance exposure from AI outputs that do not meet regulatory standards.

• Does this course cover AI governance for finance teams?

  Yes - Lesson 07 includes a practical AI governance framework designed for finance contexts and a demo that walks through drafting and critiquing an AI use policy, demonstrating what actionable governance documentation looks like rather than leaving governance as an abstract concept.

• What does the document intelligence demo cover?

  The document intelligence demo in Lesson 05 covers how AI can extract, interpret, and reconcile information from financial documents, demonstrating a use case highly relevant to accounts payable, audit, and financial close processes where large volumes of documents require review and data extraction.

• How is prompting for finance different from general prompting?

  Financial prompting requires greater precision in how questions are framed, explicit guidance about data formats and calculation expectations, appropriate handling of sensitive financial information, and awareness of how AI can misrepresent or hallucinate numerical outputs. Lesson 04 covers these finance-specific considerations as the foundational skill the rest of the course builds on.

• How long does this course take to complete?

  The course is fully self-paced with no fixed deadlines. The demos vary in length - Lesson 07's governance policy demo is particularly comprehensive - and most learners find the most value in working through each conceptual lesson and its demo together before moving forward.

• Is there a certificate included?

  Yes, you receive a free certificate upon completion that you can add to your LinkedIn profile or resume to demonstrate your Generative AI in finance skills to potential employers and professional contacts.

• What should I do immediately after finishing this course?

  Choose one finance workflow from your current role - a monthly reporting task, an expense review, or a reconciliation process - and apply the prompting framework from Lesson 04 to it using ChatGPT, Claude, or Excel AI. The quality of your first real application will reveal exactly where your prompting skills need refinement and what additional use cases from Lesson 05 are most relevant to your specific finance function.