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Use an AI agent to find or work with data, verify the numbers, and turn them into professional animated charts for accounting, law and finance, with no programming required.
An animated chart can show change in a way a still chart cannot. A calculation builds. Events unfold. A market moves over time.
With an AI agent, much of the production work can now be automated. You can give it your own data or ask it to find suitable public data from a credible source. It can retrieve the numbers, write and run the code, and produce the finished animation.
The hard part is judgement. You still need to know where the data came from, whether the figures and units are right, what should move, and whether animation actually makes the message clearer.
Dr. Jason Dean begins with the mechanics of an animated GIF, including frames, timing, colours and looping. He then builds three professional examples with an AI agent using the full written brief on screen. The examples include a waterfall from revenue to net income for accounting, a dispute timeline with a limitation period for law, and a U.S. Treasury yield curve for finance.
The Treasury example starts with public data. It shows how an agent can locate an authoritative source, retrieve the figures, document where they came from, and turn them into an animated chart.
The course also shows what happens when a brief leaves important choices open. Some early versions work technically but still get something wrong. The timing may feel off. A label may be unclear. The data may need another check. Learners see how to spot those problems and how to give the agent precise instructions to fix them.
Other topics include twelve additional chart ideas, the nine decisions a strong animation brief should settle, how to verify sourced data, how to give useful revision instructions, where animated GIFs work well and where they become static images, accessibility requirements for motion, and the checks to complete before an animated chart leaves the firm.
Four questions and three scenarios test judgement along the way.
No programming or design background is required.
explain how an animated GIF uses frames, timing, colours and looping, and why some charts work especially well in this format;
decide when animation adds useful information and when a still chart communicates more clearly;
use their own data or direct an AI agent to locate suitable public data from an authoritative source;
verify the source, date, units and values before using externally sourced data;
write a prompt and design brief that specifies the data, sequence, timing, output and first frame;
follow how an AI agent turns data into code, plotted values, frames and a finished GIF;
reconcile plotted values to the source data and check axes, labels, sequencing and timing using a contact sheet;
write precise correction instructions that identify the frame, element, required change and anything that should remain unchanged; and
apply accessibility, delivery and data-handling checks before an animated chart is shared with a client.
Instructor Dr. Jason Dean, Associate Professor of Economics, King’s University College at Western University
Duration Approximately 49 minutes
Level Introductory, with no programming or design background required
Generative AI · AI Agents · Animated GIFs · Data Visualization · Data Verification · Financial Reporting · Prompt Engineering · Presentation Skills · Legal Technology
Associate Professor of Economics | King's University College at Western
#Dr. Jason Dean **Associate Professor of Economics and Applied Economist** Dr. Jason Dean is an Associate Professor of Economics at King’s University College at Western University and holds a PhD in Economics from McGill University. He teaches university students and working professionals, drawing on experience in academic research, economic consulting, public policy and the practical use of artificial intelligence. His CPD work covers applied economics and emerging AI tools. His approach is practical and evidence-based: explain how something works, identify the assumptions and limitations, and give learners a framework they can use in their own work. Jason has worked extensively with generative AI since the emergence of ChatGPT, incorporating it into teaching, research and professional education. He has delivered three presentations for Haver Analytics, most recently a June 2026 session on Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. He has also presented on AI for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Toronto Association for Business and Economics. His presentations have covered AI productivity tools, copyright, privacy, emerging capabilities and the practical implications of using AI in professional work. Before joining King’s, Jason worked as an associate and health economist at Analysis Group and as an economic research analyst at CEP News. His consulting work contributed to published studies of healthcare costs and treatment outcomes. He has also taught economics to CPA students at Sheridan College. Jason’s teaching career has taken him across Canada, Japan and China. In 2024, he was a visiting professor in Canadian Studies at Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan, where he taught Canadian Business Culture and Canadian Economic History. He has also taught Labour Economics at Wuhan University of Technology and Labour Economics and International Trade and Finance at Renmin University in Beijing. His experience teaching in China later prompted him to develop his Economics of China course at King’s. His Canadian teaching experience also includes Wilfrid Laurier University, McMaster University Continuing Education and McGill University. Jason has contributed assessment questions, digital learning activities and instructional materials to economics resources for McGraw-Hill and Pearson. His research examines questions with practical consequences for households, workers and employers. What happens when immigrants cannot find work related to their education? How does a fall in income affect a renter’s ability to move? Do Canadian housing and stock markets share a long-run relationship? His work has appeared in journals including *Applied Economics*, *Regional Science and Urban Economics*, *Cliometrica* and the *Journal of Housing Economics*. As an Associate Researcher with the Montreal Economic Institute, Jason studies how taxes and benefit reductions affect the financial return to work. His policy publications examine the circumstances of low-income seniors, people taking second jobs and workers moving off income assistance. He has also provided media commentary on housing, labour markets, artificial intelligence and the Canadian economy. Jason also holds an MA in Economics from the University of Guelph and an Honours BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University. --- ## MONTREAL ECONOMIC INSTITUTE | RESEARCH REPORTS - **“End Penalties That Punish Low-Income Seniors Who Work”** (2026), with the collaboration of Gabriel Giguère. - **“The Benefits of Eliminating the Middle-Income Tax Bracket”** (2025), with the collaboration of Emmanuelle B. Faubert. - **“Full-Time Struggle and Two-Job Juggle: A Tax Holiday for Canadians to Fight Rising Costs”** (2024), with the collaboration of Renaud Brossard. - **“Canada’s Welfare Wall: Enhancing the CWB for Full-Time Employment”** (2023), with the collaboration of Renaud Brossard. - **“Labour Shortages: Helping a Trapped Pool of Potential Workers Help Themselves”** (2023), with the collaboration of Célia Pinto Moreira. --- ## POLICY COMMENTARY - **“It’s time to give the middle class a real tax break.”** *The Hamilton Spectator*, March 17, 2025. - **“Hey Ottawa, workers with two jobs could use a break.”** *The Hamilton Spectator*, January 13, 2024. - **“Workers Benefit not working for workers.”** *Financial Post*, May 4, 2023. --- ## PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH | ECONOMICS - Dilmaghani, M., and Dean, J. **“Sexual orientation and intra-household specialization before and after the legal recognition of same-sex marriage in Canada.”** *Applied Economics*, 56(29), 3460–3484 (2024). - Singh, A., McFarlane, A., Dean, J., and Erenburg, G. **“Are Canadian Residential Real Estate and Stock Markets Segmented or Integrated?”** *Empirical Economics Letters*, 23(7) (2024). - Dean, J., and Steele, M. **“Income decline, financial insecurity, landlord screening and renter mobility.”** *Regional Science and Urban Economics*, 95, 103797 (2022). - Dean, J., and Geloso, V. **“The linguistic wage gap in Quebec, 1901 to 1951.”** *Cliometrica*, 16, 615–637 (2022). - Dilmaghani, M., and Dean, J. **“Sexual orientation and homeownership in Canada.”** *Journal of Housing Economics*, 49, 101688 (2020). - Dean, J. **“Does it matter if immigrants work in jobs related to their education?”** *IZA Journal of Development and Migration*, 8, Article 7 (2018). - Dilmaghani, M., and Dean, J. **“Labor Market Attainment of Canadian Jews During the First Two Decades of the 20th Century.”** *Contemporary Jewry*, 38, 49–77 (2018). - Dean, J., and Dilmaghani, M. **“Economic Integration of Pre-WWI Immigrants from the British Isles in the Canadian Labour Market.”** *Journal of International Migration and Integration*, 17(1), 55–76 (2016). - Dilmaghani, M., and Dean, J. **“Religiosity and female labour market attainment in Canada: the Protestant exception.”** *International Journal of Social Economics*, 43(3), 244–262 (2016). --- ## COAUTHORED RESEARCH | HEALTH ECONOMICS AND OUTCOMES - **“Systematic review of long-acting injectables versus oral atypical antipsychotics on hospitalization in schizophrenia.”** *Current Medical Research and Opinion*, 30(8), 1643–1655 (2014). - **“Burden of schizophrenia on selected comorbidity costs.”** *Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research*, 14(2), 259–267 (2014). - **“Impact of omalizumab on emergency-department visits, hospitalizations, and corticosteroid use among patients with uncontrolled asthma.”** *Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology*, 109(1), 59–64 (2012). --- ## OTHER RESEARCH REPORTS - Dean, J., and Dilmaghani, M. **“Religious Diversity and Labour Market Attainment: Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, 1911–2011.”** Atlantic Research Group on Economics of Immigration, Aging and Diversity (2015).