It’s a fair question.

Over the past few months I’ve attended a couple of webinars where experienced financial modellers reviewed models generated by AI tools using a series of prompts and business assumptions. The results were interesting.

The AI produced a model that:
✔ Included a P&L, balance sheet and cash flow
✔ Separated inputs from calculations and outputs
✔ Reflected the key business drivers it had been asked to model
✔ Updated outputs when assumptions changed
✔ Asked sensible clarification questions before building the model

At first glance, it looked reasonably impressive.

However, a closer review revealed some important limitations. Some of the formulae were significantly more complex than they needed to be. Some calculations were objectively wrong. The financial statements were relatively simplistic. And the overall functionality and flexibility fell well short of what would be expected in a professionally developed financial model.

In fairness, the output was often better organised and more visually appealing than many spreadsheets that exist in the wild today. But it wasn’t a substitute for a robust financial model.

My conclusion?

AI can already help create a useful starting point. For high-level scenario planning or “back of the envelope” thinking, it’s becoming increasingly capable.

But building a reliable financial model isn’t simply about linking a few statements together. It’s about understanding how a business operates, identifying the key value drivers, structuring calculations appropriately, stress-testing assumptions and ensuring stakeholders can trust the outputs.
That’s still where human judgement and experience matter.

Of course, the most important caveat is that this reflects where AI is today. Given the pace of development, it’s entirely possible that the answer looks very different in 6, 12 or 18 months’ time.

For now, I’d describe AI-generated financial models as an interesting starting point rather than a finished solution. The technology is moving quickly. The need for judgement, challenge and experience isn’t disappearing quite so fast.

If you’d like to explore how robust financial modelling can support your next decision, Ben Whitworth is always happy to chat. AI might give you a model but Ben will help you understand the story behind the numbers.