We Didn’t Just Get Faster, We Got Smarter: The Quiet ROI of Everyday AI in Financial Operations

It’s easy to feel intimidated by AI, especially when your days are already buried under manual processes, workarounds, and systems layered by years of acquisitions. That’s where we started. This session traces our shift from hours lost to Googling, YouTube tutorials, and trial‑and‑error toward using AI as a practical problem‑solving partner.

We share real tasks that once took hours and now take minutes, how confidence grew through everyday use, and where the ROI became undeniable. Most importantly, we explore how reclaiming time didn’t just make us faster—it fundamentally changed what we choose to focus on next.

Speakers:

Lewis Okun
VP, Transformation & BI Information Technology, Diversified

Lewis Okun is a CPA-turned-transformation leader who has spent his career at the intersection of finance, technology, and organizational change. After a decade at PwC spanning audit, finance transformation, and product management for AI-enabled enterprise tools, he joined Diversified , where he served as Controller before stepping into his current role as VP of Transformation & Business Intelligence.

A self-proclaimed learn-it-all, Lewis brings firsthand experience navigating the exact challenge this session explores: drowning in manual workarounds, inheriting systems layered by years of acquisitions,  and discovering that AI isn't a threat to the finance function, rather one of the most practical productivity unlocks he's found in his career. He's here to share what that shift actually looks like from the inside.

Jessica Bryant
Staff Accountant, Diversified

Jessica Bryant is the Senior Accountant and process architect behind accounting operations at Diversified. With six years embedded in the accounting world, she has built deep expertise in systems integrations & data flows, reconciliations, journal entries, and other operational tasks. Jessica has a reputation for bringing order to the kind of layered, acquisition-built environments where chaos tends to hide.

As the operational backbone of the team, Jessica doesn't just manage processes, she redesigns them. Her work on the front lines of financial operations gives her a ground-level perspective on where AI delivers real, undeniable impact: the repetitive tasks, the manual workarounds, and the hours quietly lost before anyone thinks to ask whether there's a better way.

Moderator:

Jess Scheer
Senior Content Manager, IOFM

Jess Scheer is an award-winning business reporter, focusing on financial operations. He has spent more than 25 years creating must-have content for professionals in the finance area. He serves as Senior Content Manager of the Institute of Finance & Management (IOFM.com).

Continuing education credits available!

 Continuing Education for IOFM Certification

Receive 1 CEU toward maintaining a certification with IOFM! IOFM's premier certification programs are designed to establish standards for the industry and recognize financial operations professionals who, by possessing related work experience and passing a comprehensive exam, have met stringent requirements for mastering the body of knowledge in their profession. Additional rules may apply, depending on your certification. See full guidelines here. 

Accessibility Information:

IOFM is committed to accessibility. Disability-related accommodation requests for the live event (such as providing live captioning) should be sent to [email protected] by close of business the day before the live webinar. A captioned recording of this webinar can be made available upon request to [email protected].

Cancellation policy:

To cancel your registration for this event, simply contact IOFM customer service at [email protected] (or call 207-842-5557) no later than 24 hours prior to the scheduled start of the event. You can choose to access the full recorded event, or, your credit may be applied toward the purchase of any IOFM product or interactive event. If for any reason you are not completely satisfied with this program, we will provide a full refund — no questions asked!

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