If you use AI in your valuation practice, how often do you repeat the same directions? Follow this format. Keep the source figures intact. Explain every adjustment. Flag missing information. Each new conversation can become another round of teaching the assistant how your firm works.

Skills give those recurring instructions a reusable home. The Agent Skills format packages task guidance with optional resources, such as templates, reference files, or scripts. An assistant that supports Skills can draw on that package when handling the relevant task. Think of a Skill as a documented work procedure made available to your AI assistant.

For BV analysts, the opportunity is practical. A Skill could guide an initial financial statement spread, prepare a management interview outline, or draft a report section using an approved template. These are possible applications, not assurances of accurate results. Their usefulness depends on the instructions, available inputs, and review process.

Consider a financial statement workflow. Your instructions might require separate identification of officer compensation, a reconciliation of proposed adjustments, and a clear distinction between reported figures and analyst assumptions. Missing information should remain visibly unresolved. Packaging those requirements gives the analyst a common starting point and makes expectations easier to inspect.

The same approach can help a team discuss its methods. Writing the instructions exposes questions that otherwise stay implicit: Which source controls when figures disagree? What support is required for an adjustment? When should the assistant stop and ask? Resolve those questions before expecting automation to follow a consistent process.

A practical way to begin:

• Choose one recurring task with a clear input and a reviewable output.

• Provide a clean example and specify the source material the assistant should use.

• Define required calculations, unresolved-item flags, and points requiring analyst judgment.

• Test ordinary cases and incomplete inputs against work you have already reviewed.

• Assign someone to maintain the instructions and retest material changes.

A Skill does not establish that an adjustment is appropriate, that a source is reliable, or that a valuation conclusion is supportable. Keep those decisions with the analyst. For calculations, require a visible reconciliation and verify the result against the underlying records. Use only client information permitted within your firm’s approved environment.

Start small enough to see whether the workflow helps. Compare the output with your existing process, note the corrections required, and revise the instructions. A useful first Skill should make a familiar task easier to perform and review while keeping the supporting evidence visible.

Watch the linked video, then choose one recurring BV task and outline your first Skill: