A diverse background

Chloe Zhang is a US-based Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Public Accountant. Although her education revolved around accounting and finance, she also received a Bachelor and Master’s degree in Language Education. 

This unique combination led to diverse work experiences, like teaching Chinese to college students, working for a Big Four accounting firm, and providing professional services to a fintech startup.

Mindrift Team: Your background and experience is so interesting! We’re curious how it connects to the field of AI—have you always been interested in new technologies? 

Chloe: Thank you. And yes, I was always interested in new technologies! The first time I used AI, I was fascinated by its capacity and wanted to learn more about AI and its development. 

Mindrift Team: What inspired you to try freelancing in the AI field?

Chloe: I’m passionate about AI and technology! I feel empowered by AI in many aspects, from exploring complex and foreign fields using a good knowledge base to improving efficiency in my professional work. I’ve always wanted to be not only a user, but also a creator in the digital world. 

Freelancing in the AI industry is a great way to test the waters without making a major commitment. Whether your specialization is chemistry, cybersecurity, linguistics, or something completely different, the AI industry is always on the hunt for domain experts to train new AI models.

Along came the right opportunity

Chloe’s excitement to be part of this field and contribute her professional knowledge led her to seek out different opportunities in the AI sphere. 

Mindrift Team: Can you share how you became interested in Mindrift?

Chloe: I was looking for a role that would provide me flexibility in hours and allow me to work anywhere around the world. Mindrift came up as a perfect fit. Mindrift also provides a diverse and inclusive culture. I enjoy working with a group of talent who are professional and efficient, while also being welcoming and consistently lifting team members up.

Mindrift Team: How easy was it to fit your collaboration with Mindrift into your daily schedule?

Chloe: It was very easy for me to start the collaboration with the Mindrift team. Now that I’m running my own practice, working with Mindrift provides me with flexibility and teamwork. I enjoy arranging my days around flexible tasks and staying engaged in this cutting-edge environment with a good community like Mindrift.

Chloe joined the Mindrift freelance team as a QA on various accounting-related projects. She explains the role of a QA, or quality assurance, as “reviewing AI writers’ work and ensuring that the content quality meets the standards before it’s published to the production environment.”    

New skills meet proven expertise

For Chloe, and many others at Mindrift, working on GenAI projects has inspired them to consider what AI means for their respective industries and specializations. Fields like accounting and finance, in particular, benefit greatly from ethical, well-trained AI models in reducing repetitive tasks and human error. 

Mindrift Team: How do you see AI, particularly generative models, changing the way work is done in Finance and Accounting?

Chloe: I can see AI taking over repetitive daily work while leaving higher level decisions that require professional judgment to finance and accounting professionals. It would reduce work loads, improve accuracy and efficiency, and bring many more possibilities to the finance and accounting world.

We like to dream big at Mindrift, and encourage our experts and AI Tutors to do the same. Of course, we were curious what a “dream tool” might look like for an accounting and finance professional!

Mindrift Team: Have you personally used AI tools to automate repetitive tasks in accounting or finance? Do you have a ‘dream tool’ you’d like to see exist one day?

Chloe: I’ve been using AI for doing research, mostly for finance and accounting work. I’ve also used automation in Quickbooks, but a dream tool would be an AI model that could convert a PDF file to data or tables in Excel format neatly and without too much manual data cleansing required.

Real-life advice from our expert

If you’re inspired by Chloe’s story, you might be interested in what it takes to join the AI industry. We asked Chloe to provide some real-life advice based on her own experiences. 

Mindrift Team: What advice would you give to someone interested in AI training?

Chloe: I would advise someone interested in AI training to understand how AI processes information differently from humans. Sometimes you need to break down the knowledge points to feed AI piece-by-piece. The process takes patience and time, but once AI learns, it could improve efficiency significantly and benefit others. 

Mindrift Team: Who should definitely try it out? Describe the type of person you think would be perfectly suited for this role.

Chloe: I highly recommend this role to someone who is open-minded to upcoming changes, passionate about technology, brave enough to embrace uncertainties, patient with training, and generous with sharing knowledge.