14 best AI tools for Excel (for finance, formulas, and more)

Can you use AI tools in Excel? 

Many AI-powered tools automate workflows in Excel. Finance teams can leverage these tools to automate manual tasks like data cleaning, report generation, and even data categorization. 

Beyond low-level manual processes, AI tools in Excel handle more complex and in-depth tasks, such as scenario analysis, financial forecasting, budgeting, and trend analysis. 

You can generate actionable insights from data in less time than before, devise more effective strategies, and optimize decision-making.

Types of Excel AI tools

There’s an AI tool for almost every task you can do in Excel. Popular tools include:

• Data cleaning tools
• Financial forecasting and analysis tools
• Project management tools 
• Data visualization tools 
• Researching and dataset tools

How can using AI in Excel benefit finance leaders?

AI has reshaped financial planning and analysis processes. It is enabling finance leaders to:

• Enhance forecasting accuracy and optimize investment strategies
• Analyze large and complex datasets faster 
• Uncover insights they might have missed before
• Minimize human error in financial forecasting and analysis 

With AI tools streamlining your Excel workflows, you can stay ahead of the competition and market. All of these tools can result in better strategic planning and decision-making. 

But what AI tools should you be using?

Best AI tools for Excel

Let’s review some of the best AI Excel tools on the market. 

1. Cube

Best for: Cube’s simple and intuitive experience makes it an excellent choice for FP&A teams looking for a scalable, robust AI-powered financial planning tool at a reasonable price.

Cube is a cloud-based FP&A platform that helps companies hit their numbers without having to sacrifice their spreadsheets. Cube meets FP&A teams wherever they work—Excel and Google Sheets.

With Cube’s flexible AI-powered platform, you can hit your numbers without sacrificing your spreadsheets. Eliminate all the manual, repetitive work and focus on what matters the most—making strategic decisions that drive better business performance. 

Cube offers a dashboard creator that lets you see and explore data in Excel in depth. The platform lets you:

• Unify business data into a single source of truth by connecting existing tech stack 
• Customize the structure and relationships within your financial data in Excel to match your business model
• Ensure data integrity by tracking every change made to your financial data in spreadsheets
• Host all your Excel formulas on a single accessible platform

Features: 

• Bidirectional Excel integration: Leverage integration with Excel and work with a tool you’re familiar with. 
• Customizable dashboards and reports: Generate and share personalized dashboards and reports. 
• Centralized formulas and KPIs: Store all your Excel formulas and calculations in one place for easy access and sharing. 
• Automated data consolidation: Aggregate and manage all your business financial data on a single platform. 
• Drill through and audit trails: Keep track of all changes made to data in real-time. 

Limitations: 

• It’s not for individual business owners: Cube works best for mid-sized businesses.
• Not yet global: Cube accommodates foreign currency reports. However, Cube doesn't yet sell to European and Asian businesses with the same frequency as North American/Canadian businesses.

Ready to give Cube a try? Book a free demo.

2. GPTExcel

Best for: Generating custom spreadsheet formulas and SQL queries 

GPTExcel is an AI-powered Excel formula generator that enables businesses and individuals to streamline their Excel processes. 

Finance leaders can use GPTExcel to generate custom formulas and automate complex financial calculations, modeling, analysis, and reporting. 

The platform also enables finance teams to generate automation scripts, such as VBA scripts for Excel, to automate and streamline repetitive tasks like data entry, validation, filtering, and building custom financial dashboards.

Features: 

• Excel formula generator AI: Generate formulas and automate complex financial analyses.
• SQL query generator: Generate, debug, and modify complex SQL queries.
• Regex generator AI: Automate data validation and filtering. 

Limitations: 

• GPTExcel limits free trial users to four requests per day
• Nontechnical users might struggle with its high learning curve

Pricing: 

• Monthly 

  • Free
  • Pro: $6.99/month

• Annually 

  • Free
  • Pro: $62.91/year 

3. Formulas HQ

Best for:  Writing Python scripts for data cleaning and analysis 

Formulas HQ is a software platform for Excel and Google Sheets users. It offers AI-powered tools to generate formulas, VBA code, and regular expressions. 

The platform aims to simplify spreadsheet tasks, automate processes, and assist users in creating more efficient workbooks across multiple languages. 

Finance teams can use it to streamline financial modeling, data analysis, and reporting tasks.

Features: 

• AI-powered Excel formula generator: Creates complex Excel and Google Sheets formulas based on user input.
• VBA & apps script generator: Produces automation scripts for Excel and Google Sheets without requiring programming expertise.
• Supports multiple languages: Supports English, Spanish, French, Turkish, and Hindi

Limitations: 

• The free plan has a limit of five uses a month
• Has a steep learning curve

Pricing: 

• Basic: $0/month
• Formula Pro: $5.99/month 
• Yearly Pro: $4.33/month billed yearly

4. AI ExcelBot

Best for: Using VBA to perform tasks in Excel

AI ExcelBot enables users to generate formulas in Excel using simple text instructions. The platform offers built-in financial functions and formulas, such as ACCRINT, AMORLINC, DDB, and DISC.

FP&A teams can use this tool to automate formula generation and get simple explanations of complex formulas. AI Excelbot offers VBA code support for teams using VBA for tasks like data analysis, financial modeling, and forecasting.

Features: 

• Generate formulas: Create formulas in Excel with text prompts.
• Understand formulas: Get explanations to understand complex formulas.
• VBA code support: Use AI to write VBA for financial forecasting, modeling, etc.

Limitations: 

• Its VBA support is not comprehensive.
• The formula explanations generated might be inconsistent.
• The platform does not offer integration with other tools.

Pricing: 

• Free
• Pro: $5.99/month
• Pro Annually: $49.99/year

5. Numerous.ai

Best for: Experimenting with prompt structures, collaborating on GPT inputs and outputs, and prototyping AI features

Numerous.ai lets people use ChatGPT inside Excel and Google Sheets. Users can create content in spreadsheets, extract keywords, and classify or summarize input. 

Finance teams can use it to clean, summarize, and categorize financial data in Excel. They can also use ChatGPT inside cells and formulas and train the AI tool to automate financial processes. 

The platform also lets users generate complex formulas and get explanations for formulas using text prompts. 

Features: 

• Formula generation: Generate formulas in Excel. 
• Data sorting: Automate data sorting and categorization.
• Task automation: Automate repetitive tasks by training an AI tool. 

Limitations: 

• The app is known to be buggy. 
• Users can only perform one operation per cell.

Pricing: Prices are not listed on the website.

6. ClickUp

Best for: Managing any project’s processes

ClickUp is a project management tool that enables users to manage any project through customizable views like lists, gantts, and boards. 

It has an AI assistant for users to automate their work and integrates with other apps like Notion, Asana, Miro, Trello, and Excel.

FP&A teams can integrate ClickUp with Excel to enhance workflow automation and data analysis. They can automate data updates between both platforms, combine task management with financial analysis, and create comprehensive qualitative reports.

Features: 

• AI assistant: Do work faster with a personalized AI assistant, tailored to any specified role.
• Integrations: Connect other tools to centralize project management.
• Universal search: Search for any file in ClickUp, connected apps, or local drive from one platform.

Limitations: 

• The UI is clunky.
• It has limited integrations compared to other tools.
• Customer support is lacking.

Pricing:

• Monthly

  • Free
  • Unlimited: $10
  • Business: $19
  • Enterprise: Contact sales

• Annually 

  • Free
  • Unlimited: $7
  • Business: $12
  • Enterprise: Contact sales

7. Ajelix 

Best for: Learning  Excel VBA and understand how existing VBA code works or debug existing scripts

Ajelix is a data analytics platform that offers business intelligence and AI tools for Excel and Google Sheets. 

It also has other AI-powered tools, such as data visualization, SQL generator, answer generator, and virtual assistant.

Finance teams can use Ajelix to speed up reporting and data analysis tasks in Excel. It enables them to generate formulas to analyze large datasets, build complex trend analysis and forecasting formulas, and compile multiple related formulas into one to reduce analysis time.

Features: 

• VBA script explainer: Insert VBA scripts and get breakdowns on how they work.
• Template generator: Use keywords to create personalized Excel templates.
• VBA code debugger: Automatically correct broken VBA scripts.

Limitations: 

• Ajelix does not support custom integrations. 
• It is not suitable for individual or freelance financial analysts.

Pricing: 

• Monthly

  • Free
  • Standard: $9
  • Business: $40
  • Business+: $200

• Annually 

  • Free
  • Standard: $75
  • Business: $320
  • Business+: $1,680

8. Arcwise AI

Best for: Training an LLM based on business data and building a personalized AI model

Arcwise AI supports data analytics, visualization, and modeling. It lets users maintain a centralized data warehouse and create a custom AI model using their business data. 

Arcwise AI integrates with tools like Hubspot, Salesforce, Google Analytics, and Stripe.

FP&A teams can integrate Arcwise with Excel to automate data visualization, build charts and graphs, and drill down into data points to uncover insights. They can also generate and share reports from any size of data.

Features: 

• Data visualization: Get insights from data through custom dashboards, charts, and graphs.
• Updates and alerts: Automatically update reports and receive alerts when the business does not meet set metrics.
• Integrations: Build a centralized data warehouse by connecting all data sources to one platform.

Limitations: 

• It does not support CSV import.
• Fine-tuning the LLM might require technical knowledge.

Pricing: Pricing is not available online.

9. Excel Formula Bot

Best for: Automating data visualization

Excel Formula Bot is a data analysis platform that enables users to explore, analyze, and visualize data in Excel. 

It can convert text into spreadsheet formulas, SQL queries, and advanced data models, and it can also convert PDFs into spreadsheets.

Excel Formula Bot offers an AI data analyzer that finance teams can use to generate insights, tables, and charts automatically by simply asking a question. The platform enables them to upload and combine data from multiple sources to Excel and translate data into charts for visualization.

Features: 

• Text to Excel converter: Convert PDFs or text to spreadsheets.
• Formula generator: Generate and receive breakdowns of Excel formulas.
• SQL query generator: Generate or receive explanations for SQL queries and database syntax.

Limitations: 

• It sometimes generates wrong formulas.
• The tool has limited language capabilities. 

Pricing: 

• Monthly

  • Free
  • Basic: $5
  • Unlimited: $16
  • Unlimited+: $40

• Annually

  • Free
  • Basic: $42
  • Unlimited: $134
  • Unlimited+: $336

10. SheetGod

Best for: Exporting data in spreadsheets as PDFs or bulk emails 

SheetGod generates VBA code and app scripts to automate tasks in Excel and offers step-by-step tutorials to users on how to automate basic tasks. 

Finance leaders can use SheetGod to manage large data sets, extract specific information from Excel, and apply complex queries. 

The platform also lets users send bulk emails, PDFs, and reports using data stored in spreadsheets.

Features: 

• Excel automation: Use macros and code snippets to automate basic tasks in Excel.
• Formulas: Generate complex formulas in Excel. 
• Create add-ons: Create Google Workspace add-ons and Microsoft Excel add-ins.

Limitations: 

• Does not offer offline functionality 
• May struggle to process complex queries 

Pricing: Pricing is not available on the website.

11. PromptLoop

Best for: Automating financial research

PromptLoop enables users to automate research. Its AI crawls the internet to extract data about companies, deals, and leads based on inputted queries. It also lets users build and augment personalized datasets.

Finance teams can use PromptLoop in Excel to clean and format large datasets. Its labeling and categorizing tools automatically categorize revenues, expenses, and other financial data. They can also use the platform to automate research, such as market trends and competitor analysis.

Features: 

• Build datasets: Build personalized datasets.
• Web scraping: Extract information from websites using queries. 
• Data categorization: Assign categories or labels to data. 

Limitations: 

• It is for more technical finance teams. 
• Users may have to crosscheck research results.

Pricing: 

• Free
• Individual: $89/month
• Company: Custom pricing 

12. Excelly-AI

Best for: Transforming plain texts into Excel formulas

Excelly-AI lets users upload XLS files and generate formulas using data in the files. 

It turns plain text into Excel formulas and also provides explanations for every formula generated. It also checks the column schema of individual spreadsheets. 

Finance teams can use Excelly AI to write more personalized prompts for spreadsheets and also integrate with Slack to perform analysis while working within Slack.

Features: 

• Text to formulas: Generate more complex formulas using text prompts. 
• VBA generator: Generate VBA scripts.
• Slack integration: Work with a team directly in Slack.

Limitations: 

• The free version has a limit of five free formulas per month.
• Performance depends on the user's skill in describing desired Excel operations, potentially excluding less articulate users.

Pricing: 

• Monthly

  • Base: $4.99
  • Plus: $6.99
  • Premium: $9.99

• Annually 

  • Base: $49.99
  • Plus: $69.99
  • Premium: $79.99

13. Formularizer 

Best for: Generating and getting detailed breakdowns of VBA scripts 

Formularizer offers a simple platform similar to ChatGPT. It has an AI formula assistant, regex assistant, SQL assistant, and VBA assistant. 

Finance teams can use Formularizer to generate more accurate Excel formulas, queries, and scripts by inputting sample data from existing Excel sheets. 

Formularizer also stores all formulas users generate and provides a history that users can access at any time to compare formulas used in the past to current formulas.

Features: 

• Formula assistant: Generate and explain Excel formulas.
• SQL assistant: Generate and explain SQL queries.
• Script assistant: Generate and explain VBA scripts.

Limitations: 

• May not handle more complex formulas
• Occasionally generates inaccurate formulas

Pricing: Pricing is not available on the website.

14. Formula Dog

Best for: Converting English prompts into Excel formulas

Formula Dog automatically turns English into Excel formulas, VBA code, regex code, and SQL. 

It provides explanations for transformed formulas, code, and SQL; users can also transform existing code/formulas into English.

Finance teams can use the tool to convert their spreadsheet, VBA, and regex problems into formulas and speed up financial analysis. 

Features: 

• English-Excel formula: Convert text to Excel formulas. 
• MS-Excel add-on: Access the tool right inside Excel.
• Formula explanation: Get simple breakdowns of generated or existing formulas.

Limitations: 

• It sometimes generates wrong formulas.
• Users might need to combine it with ChatGPT for better accuracy.

Pricing: 

• Monthly: $3.50/month
• Annually: $39/year

The bottom line on AI tools for Excel

AI tools for Excel will help you streamline your FP&A process for speed and accuracy. You can automate repetitive tasks, giving your team more time to focus on coming up with smart strategies to grow your business performance. 

The best tool to use is one that offers a centralized platform that not only lets you work faster in Excel, but also provides visibility into everything happening with your business data in real-time. It should let you connect all the tools you work with together.

Book a free demo to see how Cube can help you optimize Excel and unlock the full potential of your business processes.