How do you actually ship AI into finance workflows—without turning your clients into beta testers? 💸🤖
In this Birmingham AI Finance Breakout, host Chip Kalousek and guests from Warren Averett and AL Intel walk through real tools, governance, and case studies: Excel agents, GPT-5.1, Perplexity, and custom due-diligence bots built for Alabama-focused business intelligence.
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⏱️ CHAPTERS
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00:00 Welcome, volunteers & first-timers
00:31 Mission: AI that happens for you, not to you
02:19 Sponsor intro – Warren Averett (Brittany & Riley)
06:24 Community hub, no-December meetup, GPT-5.1 & Perplexity Pro
09:18 Excel agents benchmarking – Shortcut AI
11:18 New Excel agents: BlueBox & Claude
12:56 Excel Labs & human vs AI performance
15:06 Perplexity Pro deal & Google Finance AI
16:37 Intuit’s “democratizing intelligence” & AI hype
18:36 Human-in-the-loop finance: Klarna, Lloyds & headlines (Andrew Becker)
24:21 AL Intel & EDPA: attracting investment to Alabama (Lauren Hyde)
33:32 Building the AL Intel due-diligence bot (Jacob Lamb)
46:15 Live demo output, risks & due-diligence questions
55:38 Closing, new breakouts & January 500-person kickoff with OpenAI
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📰 HEADLINES (MENTIONED & RELATED)
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GPT-5.1 launches for more natural, reasoning-heavy AI work
https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-1
Microsoft brings AI agents into Excel and the broader M365 suite
Klarna, Lloyds & others adjust AI-in-customer-service strategies
https://www.reuters.com
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📚 WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
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• How finance teams are using Excel agents (Shortcut AI, BlueBox, Claude, Excel Labs)
• When AI is “Excel-genius level” and when you still must keep a human in the loop
• How to use GPT-5.1, Perplexity, and Google Finance AI to speed up research
• What went wrong (and right) with “all-AI” customer service in financial services
• How AL Intel (EDPA) turned a 20-hour due-diligence workflow into a ~2-hour AI-assisted process
• How to design your own “finance GPT” with clear instructions, trusted data, and human review
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👥 SPEAKERS
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• Chip Kalousek — Birmingham AI Finance Breakout leader
• Brittany Robertson — Internal AI lead, Warren Averett
• Riley Jones — Supervisor, Risk Advisory & Insurance Services, Warren Averett
• Andrew Becker — Data & AI product manager in financial services
• Lauren Hyde — Alabama Business Intelligence Center (AL Intel), EDPA
• Dr. Jacob Lamb — Director of Research, AL Intel
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🤝 SPONSOR — WARREN AVERETT
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This Finance Breakout is sponsored by Warren Averett, a regional CPA and advisory firm with offices across the Southeast. They’re weaving AI into audit, tax, risk, and IT advisory—especially around controls, SOC, and cybersecurity—while keeping governance and compliance at the center.
Learn more: https://warrenaverett.com
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🏙 ABOUT BIRMINGHAM AI & WHY THIS MATTERS
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Birmingham AI is a nonprofit community working to accelerate the adoption of AI in Birmingham—for all. We host monthly meetups and industry breakouts (Finance, Engineering, Marketing, Nonprofit, HR/People Ops) focused on real-world, practical AI.
If you work in banking, corporate finance, accounting, or investing, AI is already reshaping your day:
• Spreadsheets are turning into AI-powered agents, not static files
• Research is moving from tab-hopping to conversational assistants with sources
• Clients expect faster answers and stronger human relationships
The opportunity: use AI to clear the bottom 20% of repetitive work, so you can double down on judgment, relationships, and strategy. This session is for finance pros who want AI to happen for them and their clients—not to them. 🚀
#AI #BirminghamAI #Finance #AIinFinance #Excel #Copilot #ShortcutAI #BlueBox #Claude #CustomGPTs #DueDiligence #Perplexity #AgenticAI #RiskManagement #Compliance
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