VAI Consulting

Lead the AI practice at VAi Consulting, a high-trust advisory firm supporting CFOs and executive leaders across finance, technology, and operations. Focus on strategy, implementation, and measurable outcomes for AI, automation, and analytics initiatives.

Oversee enterprise assessments, GenAI strategy development, and delivery across finance, FP&A, audit, and risk. Shape internal service offerings, support solution design, and collaborate with a national consultant network to deliver results.

Engagements include AI readiness, workflow automation, data transformation, and AI-enabled internal controls, with a focus on improving accuracy, scalability, and decision-making.

Managing Director, Head of AI

Preql

Supporting Preql, the enterprise AI data platform that solves the toughest challenge in finance: clean, reliable, ready-to-use data. Preql’s AI agents automatically ingest, structure, and deliver datasets for LLMs, APIs, warehouses, and FP&A systems. The platform eliminates data quality issues and engineering bottlenecks. Backed by leading investors and serving customers like MLB Networks, Hearst, and Coca-Cola, Preql is reshaping how finance teams deploy AI and automation.

Advisory Board Member

Eventus Advisory Group, LLC

Lead AI and analytics strategy across the organization, focusing on practical applications of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science to drive business value. My role includes identifying high-impact use cases, guiding responsible adoption, and supporting teams through training, governance, and technology evaluation.

Senior Advisor, AI & Analytics

Led the development of AI-powered solutions for the finance and accounting sectors with a focus on streamlining financial processes, improving accuracy, and supporting data-driven decision-making through advanced technologies in artificial intelligence, automation, and business intelligence. Enabled increased efficiency and strategic value while maintaining predictable costs.

Head of AI Research & Development

Provide specialized CFO assistance to both public and private companies, aligning with their unique needs and goals, including:
• Evaluate, value, and assess M&A opportunities, supporting companies in crucial decision-making processes.
• Facilitate companies' readiness for audit, ensuring accuracy and compliance.
• Enhance existing finance and accounting departments by incorporating comprehensive FP&A functionality.
• Provide guidance in ERP selection and actively assist clients in the ERP implementation process.
• Evaluate, implement, and integrate financial technology solutions for significant process and reporting improvements.
• Assist businesses in transitioning to data-driven decision-making by setting up intelligent platforms that leverage data analytics and artificial intelligence.
• Apply financial insights across diverse sectors, including CPG, Manufacturing, Construction, Technology, Business Services, and Healthcare.

Director | CFO

Fogelman College of Business & Economics, University of Memphis

Appointed to advise the Crews School of Accountancy on strategy, curriculum, and industry engagement. The board connects the school with the business community, supports outreach and fundraising, and helps align programs with evolving trends in accounting, finance, and technology.

Advisory Board Member, Crews School of Accountancy

Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business

The Duke Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Program is an intensive 8-month program that transforms financial leaders into visionary strategists. Led by world-class Fuqua faculty, the program equips participants with the tools and insights to navigate complex financial decisions and drive transformative growth within their organizations, preparing them for the evolving role of the CFO.

Instructor, Executive Education

FP&A Today

Host FP&A Today, one of the premier podcasts on FP&A. It is a weekly show where we bring you the latest news and actionable tips about all things FP&A.

Podcast Host

G3 Consulting

G3 Consulting partners with finance leaders to drive transformation through AI, automation, and analytics. Since 2020, the firm has supported a wide range of organizations in building intelligent finance functions, improving decision-making, and scaling strategic capabilities.

I lead advisory projects, design AI-powered solutions, and deliver executive education focused on the future of finance. The firm also supports speaking engagements, course development, and partnerships with institutions and industry groups.

Focused on combining financial expertise with advanced technologies to modernize operations and deliver measurable impact.

Consultant

Sandline Global

Led finance, accounting, and human resources activities, including financial planning and analysis, controllership, sales reporting and commissions, payroll, and business systems.
• Spearheaded company reorganization, including the establishment and consolidation of international subsidiaries in Taiwan, Germany, and UAE.
• Streamlined the invoicing process, reducing time to generate and issue client invoices by 50%.
• Improved the receivables collection process resulting the reduction of Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) by almost 50%.
• Responsible for treasury, accounting, FP&A, budget development, risk management, human resources, contract review, and purchasing.
• Managed payroll and compliance for US and international tax authorities.

Chief Financial Officer

CICAYDA

Charged by the board of directors to increase company scalability and efficiency and prepare for planned M&A activity.
•	Established full back-office automation that reduced monthly close timeline from 30 days to 10 days, improved invoicing, collections, expense tracking and monthly reporting.
•	Led company-wide M&A activity including business valuation, deal structures, negotiation and due diligence.
•	Developed KPI metrics and provided ongoing real-time reporting for department and division heads, investors and board of directors. 
•	Directed all financial and administrative operations for legal technology service company encompassing treasury, accounting, FP&A, budget development and management, risk management, human resources, contract review and negotiation and back office operations.

COO | CFO

GR Ventures, LLC

Developed and launched entertainment-oriented software products. Managed a team of developers using Agile Software Development & Project Management. Additionally, oversaw Human Resources, including payroll and contracts for 30 full-time and contract employees in five states. Managed annual budget/forecasts while raising in excess of $4M.
Key Responsibilities: Strategic planning, Profit & Loss (P&L), KPI/Metric Development and Tracking, GAAP Compliance, Budgeting & Finance

Managing Partner | CFO

Author, lecturer, and strategic advisor focused on AI-powered finance transformation.

20+ years as a CFO and finance leader in private equity-backed companies, leading initiatives in automation, analytics, and operational scale. Deep expertise in aligning finance strategy with modern technology to improve performance, accuracy, and decision-making.

Advises CFOs and finance teams on adopting AI across forecasting, reporting, and operations. Emphasis on practical implementation, responsible governance, and measurable outcomes.

Author of Deep Finance and AI Mastery for Finance Professionals. Lecturer with Duke University, AICPA, and the Corporate Finance Institute, teaching the application of AI in real-world finance functions.

Committed to helping finance evolve through smarter systems, stronger insights, and better execution.

US Navy veteran.

Honored to be nominated for the Visionary for AI in Finance in the 2025 Office of the CFO Awards from Datarails.
And maybe more honored to have this new uncanny valley AI animation video of me riding Puff the Magic Dragon down Rockefeller Ave with absolutely zero gray in my beard.
What's up, Bob Sheetner (aka FPandA)!?

Glenn Hopper

Building Practical AI Solutions for Finance | Head of AI at VAi

In this week's substack article, I am writing about how to use the new Claude Skills feature in corporate finance. To test them out, I used the PDF Skill to create this fairly comprehensive guide to Claude Skills with just a single prompt.

The article will be out Friday, but for those who can't wait that long, Claude did a pretty good job explaining itself.

How to use Claude Skills in Corporate Finance

Finance teams have been climbing the AI mountain for months now ... running demos, pilots, and proofs of concept. 

For many, the summit has appeared close (maybe on multiple occasions), but then the rock started to slip. 

That isn't failure. It's the start of a new phase, one where the tech finally delivers, and the hard part becomes building an operating model that can keep up.

Generative AI can do amazing things, but you have to know when and where to apply it, and how to keep it contained within guard rails. It's this lack of understanding and discipline that's driving the high failure rates that make the news with regular cadence in recent months.

I think I'm a little ahead of Gartner here, but based on what I'm hearing from clients, I think we've already crossed the peak of inflated expectations around generative AI. And a lot of teams are still waiting for proof that AI can actually deliver in real workflows. 

But the issue isn't whether the technology works. It's that month-end close and reconciliations still feel like pushing the same rock uphill, and most companies haven't figured out how to use AI to change that.

The real test with AI is knowing when the rock has crossed the ridge and learning how to steer instead of push.

AI already helps with variance analysis, invoice processing, account reconciliations, and reporting automation. The key is putting it to work inside clear controls with humans still in charge.

So where do you start? 

Pick one process. Publish the baseline. Build controls into the workflow. Pilot it with discipline. Then scale what works.

Stop bracing. Start steering. The green pastures on the far side of the adoption curve are closer than they look. You just have to keep climbing with control.

(Am I mixing my metaphors too much at this point? Thinking a lot about the Gartner Hype Cycle, the adoption curve, and that whole Sisyphian feeling of trying to break free of the struggle as we push to reach the other side ... so my metaphors are clearly getting increasingly complex. Is this how manifestos are born?) 

Read more: https://lnkd.in/e_f_the3

After a week evaluating ChatGPT Atlas and Comet, the future of web browsing feels clear. These browsers are powerful, but they are not yet ready for the level of trust users are already placing in them. A single line of hidden code in a web page can redirect them into private sessions.

Here’s what early research shows about the potential of AI browsers, the security gaps emerging around prompt injection, and what finance and business leaders should be doing to stay protected.

How Atlas and Comet Could Put Your Data at Risk I've spent the past week testing the new AI-powered browsers from OpenAI and Perplexity, and in them, 

Open article: The AI Browser Revolution Comes With a Hidden Danger by Glenn Hopper • 7 min read

The AI Browser Revolution Comes With a Hidden Danger

This week on FP&A Today, we're joined by Peter Lynch.

Peter is the founder of ASimpleModel.com and Chief Strategy Officer at Stephen Gould. He built his career in investment banking and private equity at Rabobank, J.P. Morgan, Argenta Partners, and Hilltop Holdings, and he is known for turning complex finance into clear instruction.

We talk through career inflection points, how to teach modeling that actually sticks, and the operator’s view of capital allocation. We also dig into where AI adds leverage without diluting your voice as a builder and leader.

Highlights:
 • JP Morgan in Buenos Aires and lessons from early deal work
 • Building “crazy” models through the financial crisis
 • Capital allocation strategy at Stephen Gould over a long horizon
 • How ASimpleModel went from side project to go-to resource
 • The most common mistake in financial modeling
 • What people get wrong about private equity
 • Where AI fits in a practical finance toolkit

Open article: Secrets to a Simple Model: Peter Lynch by open.spotify.com

It was great running into George Mount at LinkedIn Learning this week. He was finishing up a new course right as I was starting my next course on agentic AI in finance.
George is one of those people who make you instantly glad you crossed paths. He's thoughtful, generous with his insights, and passionate about helping finance and analytics professionals grow.
If you work in FP&A or data analytics, you probably already know him from his books 'Modern Data Analytics in Excel' and 'Advancing into Analytics: From Excel to Python and R.' 
I had him on FP&A Today a while back, but it was even better getting to meet in person.
Always great to see LinkedIn Learning bringing together such a strong community of educators and creators.

Finance has never stood still. From SOX to cloud to machine learning, each wave has moved CFOs closer to the center of strategy.

Generative AI is the next step. It changes finance from reporting what happened to shaping what happens next.

In this week’s Deep Finance Dispatch I cover:

▪️ How SOX habits like evidence, sign-offs, and controls translate into AI governance
▪️ Why CFOs, not CIOs, are being asked to decide where AI belongs in reporting and forecasting
▪️ A 90-day sequence for variance commentary, anomaly detection, and scenario planning

The Free edition outlines the playbook. The Pro version adds downloads: an AI Evidence Pack template and an ROI calculator for the board and audit committee.

Read here: https://lnkd.in/eQ2KZxYG

Continuing a theme here ...

Karpathy’s right to call out the hype. Most “agents” today are just workflows with a bit of polish. They can trigger tasks, fetch data, and chain together simple decisions, but they don’t reason.

That doesn’t make them useless. The next wave of productivity will come from small, specialized agents that work together under human supervision.
In finance, we’re already seeing it. One agent checks variances, another drafts commentary, another pulls supporting documents. With orchestration and governance, it starts to look less like a demo and more like a reliable internal product.

The gap between what’s possible and what’s promised is real. But practical agents that know their lane and stay in it are already improving how work gets done.

If your team is exploring agentic workflows or AI-powered automations, reach out. At VAI Consulting, we help finance and operations leaders design, test, and deploy systems that actually work.

Open article: A Reality Check on Agents by theinformation.com

OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy calls AI Agents slop:

"Overall, the models are not there. And I feel like the industry [...] it's making too big a jump and it's trying to pretend that this is amazing. And it's not - it's slop! And I think they are not coming to terms with it. And maybe they are trying to fundraise or something like that, I'm not sure what's going on."

This is peak 2025 AI energy.

↳ Altman: “AGI soon, trillion-dollar infra incoming.”
↳ Karpathy: “Bro… your agents can’t even book a flight.”

It’s hilarious but also telling.

You can feel the rift forming:

→ The scalers want compute, hype, and capital.
→ The builders want cognition, reasoning, and patience.

If Karpathy’s right, the next decade is about real intelligence - not vibe-coded chatbots pretending to be CEOs’ assistants.

If Altman’s right, OpenAI becomes the trillion-dollar AGI empire.

Either way, someone’s holding the bag.

P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

Walk down memory lane for your weekend listening ...

So much has changed since this FP&A Today interview with Paul Barnhurst ... This conversation was around ChatGPT 3.5 and was a great follow-up to my first book on AI in finance.

It's pretty amazing to see how far vibe coding has come since then ... back when we didn't even know what to call it!

And I love that now, two years later, Paul and I have a podcast together called Future Finance.

https://lnkd.in/exynVXmP

Open video: Glenn Hopper: Using ChatGPT to Build an FP&A tool and What Happened Next on youtu.be

Glenn Hopper: Using ChatGPT to Build an FP&A tool and What Happened Next

Artificial intelligence isn’t just changing how we talk about finance. It’s reshaping how we forecast, plan, and respond to risk in real time.

I joined Andrew Swartz on the LUMIQ podcast to break down how finance teams are using AI to move beyond static spreadsheets and into dynamic, data-driven forecasting.

In this episode, we discuss:
▪️ How AI is transforming real-time risk modeling
▪️ The evolving role of AI as a strategic finance partner
▪️ Why clean data and human judgment still define great forecasting

If you’re serious about becoming an AI-ready finance leader, this one’s for you.

🎓 Earn 1.5 CPE credits while you listen:

Open article: An AI Playbook For Modern Risk Analysis by lumiq.app.link

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