On april 11 we ran a free 90-minute AI workshop at Burlington Central Library — Ron Ness Training Room — for finance professionals in the area.
10 people showed up. most had never seriously used Claude or Gemini before. by the end they were building their own prompts and applying them to real accounting work.
Here’s what we covered and what we learned.
Who showed up
Accountants, Bookkeepers, a couple of small business owners, and a few finance students. mix of experience levels — some had tried ChatGPT once or twice, others had never opened it.
No technical background required. that was the point.
What we covered
The 3 AI tools framework
Most people walk in confused — chatgpt, claude, gemini, what’s the difference, which one do i use?
we cut through it fast:
- ChatGPT — best for writing, brainstorming, general tasks
- Claude — best for document analysis, summarizing long reports, data
- Gemini — best for research, pulling info from multiple sources
simple. one framework, stop wasting time with the wrong tool.
Live demo: summarize a 50-page report in 30 seconds
This is the one that gets people. we took a real financial document and fed it to Claude.
30 seconds later — key trends, risk factors, investment thesis, all summarized.
what normally takes 45 minutes of reading took half a minute. the room went quiet.
the lesson: you still need to verify the output. but Claude gets you 80% there instantly. use the saved time for actual thinking.
Data privacy
This is the part most AI workshops skip. we didn’t.
finance professionals are rightfully nervous about this. so we were direct:
Never share:
- client names or identifying info
- account numbers or transaction details
- proprietary strategies
- anything under NDA
Safe to use:
- public data (annual reports, earnings transcripts)
- general analysis frameworks
- draft templates with no client specifics
the rule of thumb: if you wouldn’t post it on LinkedIn, don’t put it in ChatGPT.
addressing this upfront removed the biggest barrier in the room.
Take-home prompt pack
everyone left with 5 copy-paste ready prompts for their actual work — document summarization, data analysis, client emails, research synthesis, report generation.
the prompts aren’t magic. but they remove the friction of starting from scratch every time.
What we learned
Demos beat slides every time. we had some theory slides. nobody cared. the moment we switched to live demos the energy in the room changed completely.
The privacy conversation builds trust. people came in nervous. once we addressed what’s safe and what isn’t, they relaxed and actually started engaging.
Tool comparison is underrated. one attendee said she’d been using ChatGPT for document analysis the whole time when Claude would have done it 10x better. one framework, immediate improvement.
People want templates. the prompt pack was the most requested thing. not because people are lazy — because remembering to use new tools in daily work is hard. templates reduce that friction.
What’s next
The 90-minute session is an intro. good for getting started, not enough to go deep.
we’re planning a full day paid workshop in Burlington — late May — for CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers who want to go further. hands-on, smaller group, built around real accounting workflows.
$150 CAD. limited to 10 spots.
if you’re interested, get in touch and we’ll add you to the list. you’ll hear when registration opens before anyone else.
GRC Vitrix runs AI training workshops for finance professionals in Ontario. Based in the Niagara Region.