In today's edition:

• Guides & How-Tos - How to Access 90% of AI language models for FREE

• Expert Resources - FAST AI document analysis | FP&A Creator Spotlight - Christian Wattig

• Tech tools & updates - AI employee for automation | Expense categoriser | AI writing assistant

• Lots of free stuff!

PLUS - ‘Prompt of Week’ & ‘Best Bot’ recommendations

A FREE community invite from me…

Happy New Year everyone 🎊 it’s going to be an exciting 2024 I’m sure!

To kick-off the year, I’ve created a new ‘Tech for Finance’ Slack Community!

It’s a community that’s completely free to join.

We can share & improve prompts, share AI Bots & GPTs, keep up to date with new tools, seek systems advice as well as help each other with our challenges.

Join this brand new community here. See you there!

Guides & How-tos

How to access 90% of AI language models for FREE

ChatGPT isn’t the only way to talk to AI.

Not many people know, but, there’s a tonne of ways to access pretty much every AI model (except the REALLY advanced ones) for free.

You just need to know where to look.

In this walkthrough, we’re looking at a few of my favourites:

1. HuggingChat (Where you can also access the web)

2. Poe (Where you can also create bots)

3. Anakin (NEW)

You can find the full video here.

Key points from tutorial:

1. Overview of Platforms: The video discusses platforms like HuggingChat, Poe, and Anakin for accessing AI models.

2. HuggingChat Platform:

   • It allows users to choose from various AI models.

   • Models include 3.5 (free version), Mixtral, Llama, GPT3.5, Falcon, and Mistral 7B Instruct.

   • Users can add a system prompt for custom instructions.

   • Example given: Creating a budget process using a different AI models.

   • HuggingChat also offers a web search feature.

3. Poe Platform:

   • Known for bot creation, but also allows exploring different models.

   • Paid version provides access to advanced models like GP4 and Claude 2.0.

   • Features both language and image models (e.g., Dall-E-3, Stable Diffusion etc).

   • Example: Using Claude Instant, an anthropic large language model, for varied responses.

4. Anakin Platform

   • A new contender, but offers access to some lesser known models

   • Referred to as ‘Applications’ instead of bots, users in the community can create and share with others

   • Premium Paid version similar to the premium version of Poe

Message me if you find any other platforms you’re excited about!

Expert Resources

Fast AI Document Analysis

Another FREE tool for you. This one’s great for documents.

If I’m right, I also believe it was created by some of the original team at OpenAI, but don’t quote me on that…

Here’s the post 👇️ 

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How to use AI to Q &A documents for FREE

(It'll take less than 60 seconds)

1. Sign up to Perplexity
2. Upload your document
3. Start asking it questions

✅ Pros

- It's super fast
- It's great with specific prompts

❌ Cons

- You're limited to 3 docs a day (with the free version)
- It struggles with large docs unless you tell it where to look

Check Perplexity out here.

Creator Spotlight

Christian has just passed 100k followers on LinkedIn (wow).

He also has a VERY successful newsletter (FP&A Tuesdays) which I’d deffo recommend you checkout.

When Christian and I spoke on the podcast, he had some pretty controversial views on PowerPoint. Here’s some of the highlights from “PowerPoint is Dead: How to Master the Art of the 1-Pager” Ep.028.

1. Christian Wattig's Background: The podcast features Christian Wattig, an FP&A (Financial Planning and Analysis) educator and founder of FP&A Prep. He shares his journey from working in corporate finance at major consumer goods companies like Procter & Gamble and Unilever to transitioning into entrepreneurship. He emphasizes the complexity and learning opportunities in finance roles within large consumer goods companies.

2. Teaching and Course Development: Christian discusses his passion for teaching, which he discovered while leading an FP&A team and developing Excel courses for colleagues. This led him to create his own course, focusing on FP&A skills for finance and accounting professionals, particularly those in small and medium-sized companies.

3. Entrepreneurship and Risk: He talks about the decision to leave corporate America and become an entrepreneur. Wattig highlights the risks associated with both salaried employment and entrepreneurship, noting that being an entrepreneur allows for more control and the ability to pivot strategies as needed.

4. Learning Styles and Platforms: The conversation also touches on different learning styles and platforms. Christian advocates for cohort-based learning, which he believes offers advantages like peer interaction and a more engaging learning experience. He also mentions diversification in learning methods, including video-based courses and coaching for other entrepreneurs.

5. PowerPoint vs. One-Pagers: Early in the podcast, there is a discussion about the effectiveness of PowerPoint presentations versus one-pagers. Wattig, aligning with Jeff Bezos' views, suggests that one-pagers require more thoughtful communication and deeper thinking compared to creating extensive slide decks.

Check out the full discussion here on YouTube. And on this Podlink for audio (Episode 028)

More from Christian

• How FP&A Leaders drive company strategy [Infographic] - Link

• Basic FP&A versus Strategic FP&A [Infographic] - Link

• How much Accounting do FP&A pros need to know? [Swipe File] - Link

Tech Tools & Updates

Tools

Here’s this week’s tools:

1. AI Employee - Automate data transfers with AI - Link here

2. Expenses Sorted - Use AI to categorise expenses in Google Sheet - Link here

3. Ginger - AI powered writing assistant - Link here

Updates

Copilot

To date Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) has used OpenAI models in the background. But until now, it’s been optimised for web search.

But pretty soon, Copilot (which you can access for free at copilot.microsoft.com) will benefit from GPT4.5 Turbo and give you access to image generation, and the advanced data analysis feature to run code.

A couple of things to note however. Image generation still isn’t great, and it' doesn’t possess the ability to generate docs (Excel & Word) in the same way ChatGPT Pro will.

But it’s still a tremendous amount of value for free!

Keep an eye as it’s still being rolled out.

GPT Store

The GPT store will open next week!

To date, you could only find others’ GPTs I’ve they’d shared them with you (or if people like me had compiled lists).

Now everyone will be able to search a database of GPTs for different purposes.

Builders will also be able to charge for their GPTs if they like.

Prompt of the week

This week’s prompt of the week goes to someone I found on the interwebz, who is pretty anonymous. They are only known as @hey_madni.

Either way I thought it was cool…

Instructions

This prompt will create an outline for a PowerPoint presentation. it's a two part prompt. This will give you the titles and top level content. This works best in GPT4 but also works in 3.5.

This will work for a smaller number of slides but longer slide decks will not work and you should do them in sections. To begin this prompt you should copy and paste in this first prompt.

The Prompt

Part 1 - You are an [expert role]. Write an outline for a PowerPoint presentation (No. of slides) on [your topic]. Focus on the benefits of [your theme] Here is an example: You are a expert [role] Write an outline for a PowerPoint presentation (5 slides) on [topic]. Focus on the objective of [goal presentation]

Part 2 - Now write all the VBA code to create the PowerPoint slides for this deck. The text should be centered on the slides and aligned to the left.

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Once this has been completed and you have VBA code, Open up PowerPoint then Press Alt + F11 on Windows or Option + F11 on Mac. Click "Insert" and select "Module" then simply Paste the code, and click the Play button. Your slides will generate themselves!

The slides generated will look boring, don't worry! Click on the "Designer" option, then choose a layout that suits your needs. Generate custom images from Dall-e 3 or Midjourney to add that extra level of spice.

Best Bot

Today’s best bot comes from Prompt Perfect.

[NOTE - I am not affiliated with any of the tools in this e-mail.]

So that’s it for this week.

See you soon.

Adam

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P.S - The best thing you can do to help me is share this with a fellow finance professional, so please link / forward where you can 🙏

P.P.S - Don’t forget to check out the AI in Finance Club. I am both an affiliate and expert member, and can’t wait for you to join us!