In this episode, we're asking how AI can help CPAs make smart decisions about capital allocation? One area that is notoriously difficult to analyze is marketing.

Making smart decisions about marketing expenditures can be challenging because the correlation between marketing investment today and the long-term impact on financial results in the future is not obvious. 

AI can help fill in this gap between decisions today and results months or years in the future.

Our first guest Dave Bunce is the CEO of Morphio, a company that uses A.I. to analyze the effectiveness of marketing investments. He says AI is valuable to CPAs because,

“It puts CPAs in the driver's seat of having access to information and insights they otherwise wouldn't have had, and that can apply across functions and across stakeholders.”

Our second guest looks at what CPAs need to do to ensure they remain in the driver’s seat and not become a passenger. Mario Malouin is a professor at the University du Québec de l’Outaouais and a member of the IEEE SBA Technology Experts Group. He breaks down the many steps CPAs need to take to feel confident in the data that they're getting from AI.

He says CPAs need to do more than examine what is the source of the data, how the algorithm has been trained, how it has been tested, and how it has been deployed in real life. 

“You need to zoom out and understand what is the task you want to give to what I call those intelligent agents. And this is key.”

If you're interested in learning more about CPA Canada's Foresight Initiative, click on the link below.

Key Moments:

02:50 Dave Bunce describes a case study where his team analyzed the impact of marketing decisions on revenue.

06:50  Mario Malouin breaks down the steps CPAs need to take to ensure they remain in the driver’s seat with AI.

08:50  Mario describes the discussion CPAs need to have with their supplier of AI to feel confident it is the right tool for the right job.

12:27  How CPAs can choose between the various suppliers of off-the-shelf AI solutions.

18:55  How CPAs need to develop guiding principles like integrity or inclusion before embarking on any AI-enabled journey.

Links:

Mario Malouin

Morphio

Dave Bunce

To learn more about Foresight: The CPA podcast or CPA Canada's Foresight Initiative visit:

Foresight: The CPA Podcast

CPA Canada's Foresight Initiative

CPA Canada English

CPA Canada (Français)

• Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect that of CPA Canada.
• Avertissement : Les opinions et les points de vue exprimés dans cette série de balados sont ceux de l’invité et ne représentent pas nécessairement ceux de CPA Canada.