Welcome to The One-Pager

It's been almost a year since I've written a blog post but I'm back.

This is something new I'm trying out -- a short post every couple weeks to help stay up-to-date on the latest developments in financial modeling.

It'll include a few quick thoughts from me, and then a handful of relevant links you might find interesting.  The goal is to skim it quick, hopefully grab something helpful, and get on with your day.

If it's useful, I'll keep it going. If not, I won't. Simple as that.

Sheet Happens

Right now, feels like we're in a full-on AI arms race to get inside your spreadsheet, and frankly I find it kind of exhausting.

In the first two weeks of March, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google all shipped AI updates that live directly inside Excel and Google Sheets. Claude was a few steps ahead and feels like leader in the clubhouse right now, but I suspect that will change soon (can't wait to change my subscriptions, again).

That means my your days of copy/pasting from ChatGPT like an absolute psychopath are over.

On the surface, it feels like a "speed race," and the "how I built [something] in 4 seconds" on social media is getting a bit nauseating, but there's more to the story than that: data access.

OpenAI and Anthropic both announced nearly identical partnerships with FactSet, Moody's, S&P, LSEG, and others within weeks of each other. Whether data access becomes a real differentiator or just gets commoditized like the models themselves, I don't know yet. Worth watching.

Despite all these amazing advances, humans are still in the driver's seat (for now):

Wall Street Prep tested all four tools on a real 3-Statement Model build earlier this year. The best score was 5.9 out of 10, compared to a top analyst score of 9.4.  This will be a great analysis to keep my eyes on.

Right now I'm using Claude and it's pretty damn remarkable what it can do, but once you get in the weeds, some of its shortcomings self-reveal pretty quickly.

The reality is the same thing I've been saying for years: the fundamentals are the skill. AI is just a tool that sits on top of them. If your structure is solid, AI will make you faster. If it's not, AI will just help you build a bad model quicker.

Helpful to check out:

1. OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Excel (Mar 5) — GPT-5.4 now lives inside your workbook with connections to major financial data providers. This is GPT's Excel plug-in announcement.

2. Microsoft rebranded "Agent Mode" as just... Copilot (Mar 9) — Everything is now just "Copilot," and it lets you choose between OpenAI and Anthropic models. Honestly, RIP, my one experience with Agent Mode was miserable and I'm glad it's been rebranded.

3. "I tested Gemini in Google Sheets and it sucks" (Mar 12) — An independent finance newsletter gave Google's update an honest test. Seems like it's not quite there yet, but I feel like the underlying "AI-everything" integration could be the next race.

4. CFI launched a course on AI-powered financial modeling with Claude — I've always been a huge fan of Tim's and CFI; worth checking out if you're interested.

5. And yes, of course there's a plug: How I'm Modeling with AI — newly released on my site, which includes a selection of downloadable Claude skills you can apply to your modeling right away.

Hope you enjoyed this short newsletter!

That's it for this one. See you in two weeks.
—Chris