# So... How does one actually use AI? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** ai\ **Created:** [February 20, 2026, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-one-actually-use-ai/1027842 "2026-02-20T03:06:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 118
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2026, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-one-actually-use-ai/1027842/118 "2026-03-24T19:20:07Z")
As this thread is more appropriate, I’m going to quote something I posted about in the Pit AI thread regarding a couple of more use cases for which I found AI to be very helpful. As it’s long, I’m going to put this in a details tag. > **** > > I’ve been reading about how AI is changing how coding (programming) is being done, much of this amplified over the past few weeks because of modifications to the Claude AI model. > > So I decided to test it myself, using Gemini (which we already pay for in my business - it comes with our paid Workspace subscription.) > > A note about myself: I am _not_ a programmer, though I have run programming teams. As I explained to them: “I know what the inputs need to be. I know what the outputs need to be. I know, logically, how to get the output because, until now, I’ve brute-forced the inputs to give me my desired output. What I don’t know is how to tell the computer to take _these_ inputs to create _that_ output.” > > IOW, I don’t know shit about programming. > > Bona fides (or lack of them) aside, this weekend I decided to just go ahead and… given what I was reading about plain English being the programming language of the future… to see if I could get Gemini to programmatically solve two problems my company was having. > > The first was to create a general knowledge internal web page about classifying bookkeeping transactions based upon inputs like dollar amount, industry, entity-type (sole proprietor, S-Corp, etc), and a description of what was needed. Using Gemini I built this thing to _only_ use primary sources (Finra, IRS, others) and to be robust enough so that if the team member forgot an important detail, they could add it in later. > > It fucking works like a charm, team. It’s an absolute game-changer and will assist our weaker team members into becoming better accountants and our great accountants into being superstars. It not only tells you the accounting treatment, it tells you _why_ you do it this way, citing IRS Regs and GAAP standards, and alternative ways to do it based upon the legal entity type. > > For example, I have the following issue: > > “My new client bought a F150 for $55,000 in October 21st, 2023. She paid $15,000 in cash and took a $42,000 loan on the vehicle at 6.25% interest over 60 months. The extra $2,000 in the loan was because the document fees were rolled in the loan. She has not provided us with a statement, but we see an automatic payment of $634.43 leave her account every month like clockwork. > > She totaled the truck on December 21st, 2025. Her insurance covered the loss, paying off the loan in full. She is an S-Corp. Please provide me with the following: > > 1. The book entry for the purchase. > 2. Annual adjusting entries for interest and principal expenses. > 3. Annual adjusting entries for depreciation. > 4. The book entry for the loss of the vehicle. > 5. The amortization table you used to calculate the interest/principal payments.” > > It then does all the math, gives me the book entries (which can be downloaded to CSV) and the amortization table. > > But wait! It assumed that, being an S-Corp, we used accelerated depreciation… which the client didn’t do, their CPA just used a standard 5yr straight-line depreciation schedule. So I modified the query by saying: > > “Oh, yeah, when they bought the truck, they were a sole-prop LLC, not a Sub-S. So they used a straight-line depreciation schedule of 5 years. Please provide me with updated depreciation book entries for each year.” > > And it does so, easy-peasy. > > The other use case is client specific. He wants specific administrative expenses allocated among his divisions based upon the divisions monthly revenue percentage. Why does he want this? Fuck if I know, but despite our telling him that this isn’t the best method, it’s what he wants. > > So, also on the same day I created the Accounting Intelligence app, I created another HTML application where we just upload the P&L (by division) csv and the AI then builds a journal entry based upon the logic, which we then put into Quickbooks. A problem which took 15 minutes is now solved in 2. I’ve taken the bottom example and now have a suite of web apps where we can upload documents, create a journal entry, and then put that JE into QuickBooks online. Processes that once took an hour, hour and a half, now take 3, 4 minutes. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-one-actually-use-ai/1027842)._