Ashok Manthena - Closing Time: How AI Can Save Finance Teams from 18-Hour Days | Ep.035

The Adam Shilton Podcast

Join us as we welcome Ashok Manthena, founder of ChatFin and a leading voice in the world of AI and finance. With over a decade of experience in finance analytics, machine learning, and product strategy, Ashok brings a wealth of knowledge on how AI is revolutionizing the finance industry. Listen in as we discuss his vision for ChatFin and how the integration of AI in finance can help teams become more strategic and less bogged down with manual tasks.

Throughout the conversation, Ashok takes us through the multi-step process of building an intelligent co-pilot for finance. We touch on the critical role of data gathering and transformation, understanding user intent, and predicting analytics. He also shares valuable insights on utilizing AI tools and emphasizes the need for a paradigm shift in thinking and arranging data for AI to produce desired outputs. You'll get a better understanding of the potential of large language models to comprehend domain-specific knowledge and the necessity of capturing context when developing software systems.

This episode wouldn't be complete without discussing the challenges of sourcing high-quality data and the transformative potential of AI in web search. We also explore how Generative AI is redefining the finance function, evolving user interfaces, and the role of hard-coded accounting rules, database practices, and personal preferences in finance. Join us as we navigate the world of AI in finance with Ashok Manthena, where he shares his favorite app that he can't live without. Tune in and discover how AI is reshaping the world of finance.

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*Where to find Ashok*

- On LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashokman/

- Follow him and look out for his book "Supercharge CFO Office with AI"

--------- EPISODE CHAPTERS ---------

(0:00:00) - AI in Finance

(0:09:16) - Evolution of AI in Finance Analysis

(0:16:59) - Improved Language Models With Context

(0:21:51) - Challenges in Contextual Understanding for Models

(0:28:33) - Data Quality for Predictive Finance Analytics

(0:39:10) - Generative AI in Finance User Interface