Stop guessing and start iterating: turn AI into your most reliable, synthetic, and secure financial teammate.
This course, developed entirely from scratch using the latest generation of AI research applications, provides a concise overview of advanced prompt engineering techniques designed specifically for accountants and financial professionals working with generative AI tools. Participants will learn how to transform AI from a simple question-answer tool into a powerful thinking partner that accelerates research, analysis, and professional judgment. The course emphasizes a modern approach to prompt engineering known as iteration engineering, where AI outputs are treated as drafts that are refined through structured dialogue and professional scrutiny. Participants will explore the strategic mindset required to collaborate effectively with AI, learn how to structure prompts for deeper insight, and understand how to manage AI outputs with appropriate skepticism and governance. The program also highlights critical security considerations for accounting firms, including data protection practices and enterprise-grade AI usage policies. Through practical frameworks such as persona research, deep research techniques, sparring-partner interrogation, and conversational energy controls, accountants will gain the skills needed to extract higher-quality insights from AI systems while maintaining professional standards.
Topics Covered:
The evolution from prompt engineering to iteration engineering
AI as a “synthetic teammate” in professional accounting workflows
The four pillars of AI data security for accounting firms
Overview of frontier AI models and tools for accountants
Core prompt architecture: use cases, persona research, and deep research
The Sparring Partner Protocol for interrogating AI outputs
Conversational energy control and advanced prompting techniques
Target Audience:
This course will benefit CPAs, accountants, financial analysts, auditors, and consultants who want to leverage generative AI tools more strategically to improve research, analysis, and advisory work.
MA, CMC, CITP/FITP
GARRETT WASNY, MA, CMC, CITP/FITP, is an artificial intelligence (AI) skills advisor to accountants, tax attorneys, enrolled agents, and tax preparers worldwide. His courses focus on the new intersection of accounting and technology, and provide guidance to practitioners on how to prosper in this dynamic age. His sessions demystify emerging cloud, mobile, and social applications, and explain in plain language how financial professionals can use these online tools to build trust, solve problems, and create new value. He’s also an award-winning Internet speaker, author, app developer, professional development specialist, and former management consultant for Price Waterhouse. He's published 50+ ebooks on computing and ethical issues related to accounting, written hundreds of articles and columns on Internet strategy, and delivered thousands of seminars and webinars to CPAs and accounting organizations around the globe.
Provincial regulators of CPAs in Canada do not require that independent providers of CPD be approved to offer courses. Instead, individual CPAs are responsible for assessing whether a CPD activity meets their requirements, and may take activities from any source provided those requirements are met.
Every course offered on LearnFormula is delivered by a qualified subject matter expert or learning organization, and advances learning objectives that are relevant to the responsibilities or professional competencies of Canadian CPAs. All activities on LearnFormula are quantifiable in terms of hours, and are also verifiable, in that users receive documented evidence of their attendance via a certificate of completion after finishing a course (and this certificate is stored by LearnFormula indefinitely). Nearly 100,000 Canadian CPAs successfully satisfy their CPD requirements via LearnFormula on an annual basis.
