Clay's Blog

Hey there! Welcome to my blog where I share thoughts on accounting, AI, technology, and whatever else crosses my mind. This is the second website I've built, so please be patient as I figure out this whole web development thing.

I'm currently between jobs (fancy way of saying funemployed) but historically I've been an accounting consultant. Now I'm exploring how to combine those skills with AI and technology. Should be interesting!

Feel free to reach out if you want to chat about any of these topics - or if you have suggestions for making this site better. Let's grab a beer and talk shop!

Everyone's talking about AI in accounting, but let's get real about what it actually means for us number-crunchers. After 6 years in the field and diving deep into AI tools, here's what I've learned...

The real magic isn't in replacing accountants (sorry, clickbait headlines) - it's in making us superhuman at what we already do well. Expense categorization, anomaly detection, regulatory compliance checks - these are where AI shines.

I've been building some tools to test this theory. The expense categorizer on my portfolio actually works pretty well. Next up: automated journal entry reviews. Because who doesn't love a good GL reconciliation at 2 AM?

I had the privilege of meeting Sarah Chen at a tech conference last month, and honestly, it was one of those conversations that sticks with you. She's been working on AI ethics frameworks for Fortune 500 companies, but what struck me wasn't just her expertise - it was her ability to make complex ethical considerations feel approachable.

Sarah shared how she convinced a major bank to implement fairness audits in their loan approval algorithms. Not through fancy presentations or corporate buzzwords, but by sitting down with loan officers and showing them real examples of how biased data was affecting real people's lives.

What impressed me most: She turned down a seven-figure consulting contract because the company wasn't genuinely committed to change. "I'd rather work with ten small companies that actually want to do better than one big one that just wants to check a box," she told me.

We ended up talking for two hours about everything from accounting automation ethics to her side project teaching AI literacy to high school students. Sometimes you meet someone and think, "This person is making the world better in a way I never considered." That's Sarah.

Marcus runs a one-person accounting practice in a town of 8,000 people in rural Texas. On paper, not exactly Silicon Valley material. In reality? This guy has quietly transformed how local businesses operate, and his story needs to be told.

When I met Marcus at a CPA conference, he was presenting on "Technology Adoption in Rural Markets" - a session that was sparsely attended because, let's be honest, most of us were there for the big city case studies. His presentation blew my mind.

Marcus had taken basic cloud accounting tools and created a collaborative system where the local businesses essentially formed an informal data-sharing cooperative. The hardware store knows when the restaurant's supplies are running low, the restaurant knows when construction projects are ramping up. All while maintaining complete confidentiality and competitive independence.

The result? This tiny town has a business failure rate 60% lower than the state average. When I asked Marcus how he came up with the idea, he said, "City folks think technology is about replacing human connections. Out here, we use it to strengthen them."

Sometimes the most impressive innovations come from the places you least expect them.