FP&A is often a practical starting point for AI in finance because the work is familiar, judgement led and can usually remain read only. This guide compares the Excel agents and add ins available now, including product status, cost, fit and where to start.
Availability and pricing last checked 14 August 2026. This market changes quickly.
A demonstration can introduce the tools, but AI fluency develops through supervised use on familiar FP&A work. Start with work where the expected result is already known, such as last month’s variance commentary, an existing model or a completed forecast review. That gives the team a reliable basis for checking the output and judging where the tool adds value.
Christian Martinez is an expert in the practical application of AI across FP&A, including planning, forecasting, variance analysis and board reporting. His courses and content are useful both before and alongside the tools below.
Learn from Christian →Much of the FP&A workload still sits in Excel, so the first practical question is how AI can support the models, analysis and reporting already built there. Three general AI assistants now work inside Excel: Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. The specialist spreadsheet agents covered later serve a different purpose and usually require a separate product decision.
Claude and ChatGPT are add ins from external AI providers. Copilot is Microsoft’s native assistant. It offers similar workbook editing, but also connects to a wider set of Excel and Microsoft 365 capabilities. The next section explains those additional features.
Anthropic’s add in is available in the UK and included from the Pro plan upward. It is well suited to the analytical and narrative work that fills an FP&A week, and is already part of this site’s Quick Claude Deployment resource.
OpenAI’s official add in is installed from the Microsoft Marketplace and is generally available across all plans. It covers much the same core ground as Claude, including understanding and updating models, formulas, values, formatting and charts. On business tiers, usage draws on plan credits. It is the natural choice where the organisation has standardised on OpenAI.
Microsoft Copilot provides a similar assistant inside Excel. Edit with Copilot can build, analyse and change workbooks using native tables, charts, PivotTables and formulas. The model picker lets users select a supported Anthropic or OpenAI model, or leave the choice to Copilot. Access depends on the organisation’s Microsoft 365 licence and administrator settings. Administrators control whether Anthropic models are available, while users choose among the models enabled for the current session. Organisations with data residency requirements should confirm the processing terms for each enabled provider.
Copilot also reaches beyond the main assistant. Microsoft provides a cell function for using AI inside a formula, Copilot in Excel with Python, direct Python in Excel, approved web and work sources, connectors to other systems, and an Analyst agent for work across several files. The next section explains what each capability does and what it requires.
FP&A work rarely ends in the workbook. The analysis usually needs to become a management or board pack. Claude and ChatGPT offer separate add ins for Excel and PowerPoint, while Copilot works across Microsoft 365. With Claude open in both applications during the same session, for example, the assistant can analyse the workbook and use the same context to draft slides without rekeying the numbers.
Get Claude for Excel and PowerPoint → Get ChatGPT for Excel →
Copilot’s wider Excel capability extends beyond the main assistant described above. The bullets below distinguish six related capabilities in practical terms. The table then shows where to find each one and what access it requires.
| Capability | Summary | Access | Use it for | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot in Excel | The main workbook assistant. It builds, analyses and edits the open workbook, including formulas, charts, PivotTables and structure. | Home → Copilot in the open workbook | Dashboards, models, variance and trend analysis, and cleanup | Eligible Microsoft 365 subscription. Model choice requires a commercial Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription or Microsoft 365 Premium. Open workbook. Calculation set to Automatic. |
| =COPILOT() formula | An AI answer inside a cell. It sees only the prompt and ranges passed to it. | Type =COPILOT("prompt", range) | Summarising, classifying and tagging text, not reproducible calculations | Microsoft 365 Copilot add on for work accounts, or Microsoft 365 Premium for individual users. Currently available through Frontier or Microsoft 365 Insider, with general availability expected December 2026. Up to 100 calculations per ten minutes. Unavailable in Confidential and Highly Confidential workbooks. |
| Copilot in Excel with Python | Copilot writes, explains and runs Python for a requested analysis on a new worksheet. | Ask Copilot to analyse the data with Python | Forecasting, statistics, outliers and segmentation | Microsoft 365 Copilot access and Python in Excel availability on Windows or the web. |
| Python in Excel | Excel’s built in Python engine. The user supplies the code and no AI is involved. | Formulas → Insert Python, or =PY in a cell | Analytics, data cleaning, Python charts and DataFrames | Qualifying Business or Enterprise Microsoft 365 plan. Premium compute needs the add on. Not available on Excel for iPad, iPhone or Android. |
| Sources and connectors | Allows Copilot to use approved web content, Microsoft 365 files and connected systems. | Copilot pane → Sources | Adding work documents or external context to an analysis | Microsoft 365 Copilot. Existing permissions apply and user consent may be required. |
| Analyst agent | An agent outside Excel that analyses several files and produces written outputs and charts. | Microsoft 365 Copilot → Agents → Analyst → attach files | Multi file comparisons, trends and statistics | Microsoft 365 Copilot licence with Analyst access. |
One control applies across all six. None signs off its own work. Keep formulas, assumptions and outputs under human review for anything that feeds reporting, and use deterministic Excel formulas where the calculation must be reproducible. Details are drawn from Microsoft’s product documentation and were checked on 14 August 2026.
Some teams need more than a general assistant inside Excel or the wider Microsoft capabilities. Specialist spreadsheet agents can provide deeper model building or stronger lineage and control, but they require a separate product decision.
Shortcut is a specialist spreadsheet agent available in its own environment and through an Excel plugin. It builds models and financial statements from natural language instructions and uploaded documents. The vendor describes the environment as having near complete Excel feature parity.
Pro pricing starts at $100 a month on annual billing, with usage credits. Treat its published benchmarks as vendor claims, and check its data handling before any confidential or client information is used.
Visit Shortcut →Endex is a specialist Excel add in for enterprise and institutional teams. It stays inside the workbook but adds deeper lineage and control than a general assistant. Its agents trace cell references, cite workbook cells and external sources, and provide one click undo and audit logging. The vendor also claims zero data retention, SOC 2 and ISO 27001, with connections to market data and company filings.
Pricing is agreed with the vendor. It suits organisations where lineage and auditability are requirements rather than optional features.
Visit Endex →Where FP&A work already sits in Excel, an approved assistant inside Excel is usually the quickest starting point. Claude and ChatGPT suit teams already standardised on those providers. Copilot is the natural route where Microsoft 365 Copilot is already licensed and the wider Excel and Microsoft 365 capabilities are useful.
Shortcut suits an individual analyst or smaller team wanting a dedicated spreadsheet agent, used either in its own environment or through its Excel plugin. Endex suits enterprise and institutional teams that need stronger lineage and auditability while remaining in Excel.
Availability varies by plan, tenant and administrator settings, so each route should be checked in the organisation’s own environment before adoption. Human review remains necessary for anything that feeds reporting. An agent may build the model, but it does not approve it.
For the wider tool landscape across AR, AP, close, cash and FP&A, see the Buy matrix.