# AI for Federal Payments and Improper Payment Prevention Course (Self-Paced)

Canonical URL: <https://www.graduateschool.edu/courses/ai-for-federal-payments-and-improper-payment-prevention-course-self-paced>

## Overview

This half-day course teaches federal payment professionals how to use AI as a practical tool for strengthening payment integrity, detecting improper payments, and improving disbursement processes. Participants will learn to apply AI to payment data analysis, fraud risk identification, vendor validation, and compliance with the Payment Integrity Information Act (PIIA) — while safeguarding sensitive financial and vendor data. No prior AI experience is required.

## What you'll learn

- Explain AI fundamentals and responsible use principles in a federal payments context
- Use AI to analyze payment data for patterns, anomalies, and potential improper payments
- Apply AI tools to vendor validation, duplicate payment detection, and fraud risk identification
- Leverage AI for Payment Integrity Information Act (PIIA) compliance analysis and reporting
- Construct effective prompts for payment-specific scenarios including Do Not Pay research and recovery analysis
- Verify AI-generated payment analysis against authoritative sources (Treasury guidance, PIIA requirements, agency payment systems)
- Recognize when AI output requires review by payment officers, contracting staff, or legal counsel

## Curriculum

#### Module 1: AI Fundamentals for Payment Professionals

- How AI language models work and their application to payment processing
- Responsible AI use with payment data, vendor information, and PII
- Protecting sensitive financial data, bank account details, and taxpayer information
- Recognizing AI hallucinations in payment analysis and compliance contexts

#### Module 2: AI for Payment Processing and Vendor Management

- Using AI to analyze invoice data and identify discrepancies
- Vendor validation and duplicate detection with AI tools
- AI-assisted analysis of payment terms, discounts, and scheduling optimization
- Researching Treasury payment regulations and guidance with AI support

#### Module 3: AI for Improper Payment Prevention and Recovery

- Applying AI to root cause analysis of improper payment trends
- Using AI for PIIA compliance analysis and corrective action planning
- Do Not Pay integration analysis and deceased payee identification with AI tools
- Payment recapture and recovery audit support with AI assistance

#### Module 4: Hands-On Workshop

- Participants apply AI tools to realistic federal payment scenarios
- Practice prompt engineering for payment analysis and fraud detection queries
- Cross-check AI outputs against Treasury guidance and agency payment policies
- Group exercise: Using AI to build an improper payment risk assessment

## Instructors

### Steve Pesklo — Instructor

Steve is an energetic trainer who focuses on applying technical concepts to everyday work practices. He is the founder and president of SoftLake Solutions, a company that specializes in providing data and AI applications to identify fraud for Internal Audit, Criminal Investigations, Forensic Accounting, Privacy, and Compliance.

Steve brings a large amount of experience across multiple industries and government agencies. He is an expert in implementing large data analysis projects across the world, including Inland Revenue in the UK and Argentina, New Zealand, Africa and across Europe. Previously, he was the manager of Data Architecture and Data Services for a large mortgage company. He is a frequent speaker on data analytics and project management topics and speaks fluent German. He has been teaching at the Graduate School for over 10 years.

Steve has an M.B.A. from the University of St. Thomas and a B.S. in Computer Science from California Lutheran University and the Universität Salzburg in Austria. He is certified as a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Project Management Professional (PMP), and a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM).

## Pricing

**Tuition:** $675