What is Excel AI and how does it work?

Excel AI (Shortcut) is an artificial intelligence-powered system that automates spreadsheet tasks and generates formulas through natural language commands. It works by understanding your plain English requests and automatically creating the necessary Excel formulas, functions, and data transformations, reducing manual work by up to 70%.

How much time does Excel AI save on financial reporting?

Excel AI saves 10-15 hours per week on financial reporting tasks. This breaks down to: 3 hours/week on formula creation, 4 hours/week on data cleaning, 5 hours/week on report generation, and 2 hours/week on error checking and validation.

Can Excel AI build financial models like LBOs and DCFs?

Yes, Shortcut AI can build comprehensive financial models including Leveraged Buyout (LBO) models, Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analyses, and 3-statement financial models in minutes. The AI understands standard financial modeling conventions and automatically creates linked schedules, assumptions tables, and sensitivity analyses.

Does Shortcut work with existing Excel files?

Yes, Shortcut integrates seamlessly with existing Microsoft Excel files on both Windows and macOS. It works as an add-in that analyzes your current spreadsheet structure and can automate tasks, add formulas, or modify existing workbooks without disrupting your existing work.

Is Excel AI suitable for financial professionals and analysts?

Yes, Shortcut is specifically designed for financial professionals including investment bankers, equity research analysts, corporate finance teams, and accountants. It understands financial terminology, accounting standards (GAAP, IFRS), and industry-specific modeling requirements used by Big 4 firms and investment banks.

Editorial rendering of Wall Street before market open

The most accurate finance agent forthe world’s besthedge funds, PE firms, banks, asset managers, FP&A teams, investors, advisory firms, consulting firms, accounting firms, family offices, and enterprises

Book a Demo

Get Excel Add-in

See Shortcut in action

Shortcut will supercharge your financial modeling and analysis. You focus on decision-making.

Best-in-class on benchmarks

The most accurate agent for finance

Setting a new frontier for performance and accuracy

Shortcut

76%

Claude for Excel

66%

Microsoft Copilot

59%

Evaluated on 20 real-world tasks across finance, private equity, and hedge funds · Three runs per task · July 2026

Cost per completed task

Shortcut costs 38% less on identical work.

The same completed finance task averaged $5.09 with Shortcut, compared with $8.17 using Claude for Excel.

$5.09

$8.17

Shortcut

Claude for Excel

Shortcut internal evaluation · 20 real-world finance tasks · Cost compares token expenditure required by each agent to complete the same work · July 2026

Deploy on your terms

Trusted globally for governance

Keep sensitive financial data under your control with independently audited systems, zero-data retention agreements, private model gateways, and customer-owned storage.

On prem deployment

Run Shortcut inside your environment

SOC 2 Type II

Independently audited controls

Zero-data retention

Agreements with AI model providers

Private gateways & storage

Connect approved models and keep data in your environment

Review security controls

Four ways to get started

Choose your Shortcut

For everyday work

Shortcut for Excel

Bring Shortcut into the Excel models your team already uses.

Get the Excel Add-in

▣ Shortcut CLI+—□×

::     ::
 ::   ::
  :: ::
   :::
  :: ::
 ::   ::
::     ::

shortcut CLI v1.0

/ for commands

/clear for new chat

▶ Approve all edits (shift+tab)

The most powerful way to use Shortcut

Shortcut for CLI

Run repeatable workflows from your terminal and existing stack.

Install Shortcut CLI

Shortcut desktop agent connected to a live Excel workbook

CLI capabilities with friendly UI

Shortcut for Desktop

Use a generalist desktop agent specialized in Excel.

Get Shortcut for Desktop

Also available on web — open a workbook and start modeling directly in your browser.

Open Shortcut for Web

Customer evidence

Tested, deployed, and measured

All case studies

Ankura Office of the CFO

#1 of 5

Top Excel AI tool in an independent benchmark across three financial models, ahead of Claude for Excel.

Read case study

TresVista

25–35%

Efficiency gains in modeling review during a 45-day pilot, with some workflows running 5x faster.

Read case study

Investment banking teams

45 min

To build a full LBO model with 400+ linked formulas, down from about five hours by hand.

Read case study

Training the first finance-specific LLM in production

Introducing Pivot 0.5

We believe an applied research lab must have the capacity to train its own frontier models to control its destiny.

Explore Pivot 0.5

An editorial illustration of a spinning top pivoting in motion