Building, scaffolding, and maintaining financial models with AI

Model ML uses GPT–5.6 Sol in workflows that create editable PowerPoint and Excel files, with 21% fewer tokens per deck than Fable 5.

"He used AI to write."

Have you heard this before?

It's often said to mean a subtle insult or belittle the intelligence of the writer. As to say: "You couldn't have written it on your own."

Hold on for a second before your ignorance of the modern world exposes you big time.

AI is an enabler and doesn't replace your intelligence and thinking. It simply amplifies it.

Hence, a weak thinker with AI will still produce weak outcomes. Yep!

That's why the ability to use AI effectively is a professional skill, just like using Excel, PowerPoint, Google Search, or even a calculator.

No one questions whether you "really" did the calculations because you used Excel. What matters is whether you understood the problem and produced the right solution

As an accountant, I use AI to help me analyse large datasets, identify trends, draft management reports, prepare board papers, build financial models, and produce insights in a few hours.

Hitherto, that would have taken me several days of manual work.

But do you know the catch here? The AI didn't replace my accounting knowledge. It relied on it.

It still takes my understanding of IFRS, taxation, business operations, internal controls, and financial analysis to ask the right questions, verify the outputs, challenge the assumptions, and make the final recommendations.

History has shown us that those who resisted computers, spreadsheets, email, and the internet eventually lost their jobs and opportunities to those who embraced it.

AI may not replace your job; someone who knows how to use AI effectively may replace you.

The future belongs to people who combine human intelligence with artificial intelligence to create more value than either could alone.

So yes, I use AI. Not because I can't think. Not because I can't write.

I use it because I refuse to spend three days doing what can now be done in three hours without compromising quality.

Embrace AI, learn it and use it🔥

I use AI (specifically, Claude for Finance) a ton in my daily job, yet there are some things like most modelling that I still have to correct AI on very often, to the point that I am still finding myself doing things from scratch. I am curious to hear what you let AI do hands-off, what you correct it on, and what you still do manually.

We're releasing ten new Cowork and Claude Code plugins, integrations with the Microsoft 365 suite, new connectors, and an MCP app for financial services and insurance organizations.

Welcome to AI in Excel in 2026.
How to build financial models in under an hour.

I use this in my business, for my clients, and for my own personal finances.

I project net worth/equity 5 years from now.
It keeps me focused on what actually matters.

Here is the exact setup:

𝗧𝗮𝗯 𝟭: 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝘀

Pull revenue, cost of goods, payroll, and overhead from your books.

Enter it by month.

This is your starting point.

𝗧𝗮𝗯 𝟮: 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁

Roll your actuals forward.

Adjust for known changes: new hires, price increases, slower months.

Now you can see the next 12 months before they happen.

𝗧𝗮𝗯 𝟯: 𝟱-𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻

Use the same structure.
Project where the business goes if you stay on track.
Change one assumption and watch the whole thing shift.

Here is the workflow:

1️⃣ Open Excel.
2️⃣ Ask AI to build a 3-statement financial model in 3-tabs: Actuals, Forecast, and 5-Year Plan.
3️⃣ Enter your real numbers in the Actuals tab.
4️⃣ Roll them forward in the Forecast tab.
5️⃣ Use the 5-Year tab to see the trajectory of the business.

Every client I work with has this built in the first 30 days.

Once it exists you stop making decisions off your bank balance.
You start making them off the numbers.

Want the full prompt to send Excel AI to build this out?

Note: This builds the structure. You will need to refine it for your business.

Follow or connect with me and comment "Model."

I spent 1 hour writing a detailed prompt.
Claude built a financial model in return.
I saved at least 15 hours of manual work.

That's not a shortcut. That's a different way of working.

What used to take half a day now takes minutes.

Not because AI is better at finance.
But because it removes the mechanical part of the work.

Here's how I actually use it:
– exploring margin scenarios across pricing and delivery
– testing headcount changes before making a hiring decision
– building first versions of financial models in one session
– structuring investment decisions before capital is committed

The role doesn't change.

The speed does.

One honest observation:

Maybe 1 in 10 from my immediate network of CFOs and senior finance managers uses AI at this level.

The rest – a free plan, simple tasks, nothing more.

Reality is far from what you see in your feed.

AI doesn't replace financial expertise.

It amplifies the person who already knows what to look for.

I'm planning a live session where I'll show exactly how I use this in real finance work.

No slides. No theory. Just live.

If you'd like to join – reply below or send me a message directly.

I use AI almost every day in my finance work—building models, pressure-testing assumptions, drafting executive communications, working through complex financial structures.

And honestly? I have no idea if that makes me early, average, or behind.

I’ve been heads-down the past 12 months and recently realized I have very little visibility into how others are actually using AI day-to-day.

Not the headlines or vendor demos—the real workflows.

For example, I’ve found the Claude add-in for Execl especially useful working with existing models to create additional what-if scenarios to evaluate different options from a financial perspective. (I’ve also found a human in the loop and detailed eye is necessary, as Claude has changed some existing formulas erroneously.)

So I’m genuinely asking: if you’re in finance, ops, or a leadership role—how are you actually using it?

→ What’s changed in your workflow (if anything)?
→ What’s been surprisingly useful?
→ What’s been a dead end?

No polished takes needed—just honest ones. Especially interested in hearing from operators in it day-to-day.

You spend days building financial models and slide decks.
What if it took 10 minutes?
👉Join my free masterclass to see how: https://lnkd.in/dqQm8FjH

Here's what just happened:

One P&L. Three scenarios. A full 5-year model — in 5 minutes.
Then a live slide deck — in 5 more.

No copy-pasting between sheets.
No rebuilding slides from scratch.
No waiting a week to show updated numbers.

Here's how it works 👇

Step 1: Give AI your P&L and define your scenarios

- Base: sales +3%/yr, margin steady, costs +2%
- US expansion: more aggressive top-line with explicit levers
- Pessimistic: sales −2%, margin −1pp, costs −1%

AI links everything end-to-end.

Each scenario pulls from the same assumptions sheet — so there's no copy-paste drift.

You tweak one driver → the entire model updates instantly → the math stays consistent.

Step 2: Ask for a dynamic slide deck

The deck reads from the same model.

You can present revenue, gross margin, and EBIT across all three scenarios — and change assumptions live in the meeting.

"What if US grows faster in 2030?"
→ One number changes
→ The charts update dynamically
→ You show the result right there — no need to wait another week

Think about that for a second:

You go from a raw P&L to a working model + interactive deck in 30 minutes.

The same work that used to take your team days.

⚠️ But don't skip governance

Treat AI like a sharp junior analyst on your team.

- Review the logic
- Stress-test edge cases
- Check formulas the same way you would with a human
- And use a corporate/enterprise environment — don't upload confidential data without a secure license

AI builds fast. Your job is to verify smart.

The finance professionals pulling ahead right now aren't working harder.
They're building in minutes what used to take days — then spending their time on the decisions that actually matter.

👉 Join my free AI CFO Masterclass:
https://lnkd.in/dqQm8FjH

💬 What financial model would you build first with this workflow?

🔁 Repost if your team still spends days on models and decks.

The scale-up finance teams I'm working with who are pushing the edge of what AI can do are all switching to Claude Cowork. The last months acceleration in this space can't be ignored.

The same AI that writes and runs code now works directly inside your workbooks and across your local files. It reads your models, debugs formulas, cleans messy data, simplifies overcomplex logic, and iterates on its own work.
Inspired by Ruben Hassid's post on building investment bank-grade financial models with Claude in Excel (https://lnkd.in/dptByTBu), I ditched the ChatGPT -> copy-paste -> Excel loop. Now I lean fully into Claude Cowork.

I'm not the only one. Secret CFO described it well - they built a unit economic model feeding an investment case by, in their words, "just streaming semi-coherent thoughts into the prompt box". No formatting. No structuring. Just context in, model out (https://lnkd.in/d2guUdcu). The CFO Office ran a full month-end workflow: vendor contract ingestion, spend-vs-contract cross-referencing, inconsistency flagging, and dashboard creation. Three markdown files, two data exports, zero code. Fifteen minutes to set up.

Here's what I tested:

I used (the ring fenced enterprise version of it that keeps your data private) Cowork on our Actuals, our context, our terminology. After 10 minutes of prompting and some Q&A it asked for, it built me a reforecast and valuation model in 20 minutes.
One that actually made sense.

That same work used to take me (optimistically) roughly a week in calendar time once you factor in meeting blocks, context switching, and iteration cycles, and 2-3 FTEs.
This is the first time I've seen AI efficiently integrate into the native workflow for FP&A and Corporate Finance. Not a chatbot you paste into for inspiration. Not a copilot that understands your spreadsheet maths but not your business logic. An agent that works across your files, understands your context, and produces real outputs.

On the Controllership/Accounting side, we've been fortunate to work with the team at Stacks for deployed AI. Now, impactful solutions are finally reaching the rest of the finance stack as well, Anthropic just shipped five open-source finance plugins (financial analysis, IB, equity research, PE, wealth management) with connectors to FactSet, S&P Capital IQ, and LSEG built in.

If you're still copy-pasting between a chatbot and Excel, or running this all yourself as we did for the last decade, try this. Anything you do monthly in Excel, and in operational finance that's a lot of shuffling, can now be automated in your native workspace. That unlocks time for analysis, controlling, and the value-adding work that actually matters.
Looking forward to hooking up and giving the Netsuite connector to Claude a spin this week!

The workflow shift is material.

I build financial models, the complex kind with circular references and logic spread across 10 sheets where one wrong cell ruins everything.

Started using Claude in Excel last week just to see what it could do. Honestly did not expect much.

This thing actually understands the files. Like really understands them, not just surface level. It follows circular references, tracks dependencies, keeps up with formulas referencing other formulas. And it finds mistakes I would have missed completely, small stuff buried deep in the logic.

What normally takes me a week of back and forth I’m now doing in a few hours. Built a full model in one day that would usually take me five.

I’m not someone who gets excited about tools easily but this one actually saved me real time. If you do anything serious in Excel just try it