Microsoft Excel, Heavyweight App of Finance Teams, Comes Out Swinging (assisted by Gen AI)

For many years Microsoft Excel was the staple application of finance teams. Perhaps one of the earliest “no-code” solutions, the combination of data management, advanced analytics, and the use of macros made Excel the go-to application for business professionals. Anecdotally, Excel was often considered the #1 cash positioning tool, especially in small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

In recent years, the role of Excel has been challenged on multiple fronts. Innovations from ERP, accounting packages, cash flow tools, and even bank solutions have delivered more information and analytics. On the other hand, business intelligence tools possess advanced data handling capabilities married to elegant data visualization user experiences. But in case you thought Excel was on the ropes, the prize fighter comes back for another round – with a value boost from Microsoft’s investments in Gen AI. Even in the face of new solutions, many treasury and finance teams still rely on Excel. Those teams will be keen to read the announcement of Microsoft Copilot for Finance.

Available now in preview, Microsoft Copilot for Finance is a conversational AI platform that allows finance teams to query and manage their business operations in natural language— as long as they use the Microsoft 365 suite. Examples of potential prompts include:

• “Show top 5 overdue invoices by amount.”
• “Reconcile accounts receivable for the last quarter.”
• “Generate a forecast for the next quarter.”

Source: Microsoft

To be fair, Microsoft Copilot for Finance is not just about Excel, it is also integrated to Outlook to enable finance workflows and generate client communications. Finance data can be sourced from ERP applications such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 and SAP.

Although probably not designed with a bank’s cash management products as a competitive target, this does pose a derivative challenge (and opportunity) for corporate banks and finance application vendors. Gen AI and copilots for the finance function (whether from Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, or other major financial/ERP vendors) have the potential to drastically shift the power of finance tools. Eventually and inevitably, these copilots will be trained on new data sources — including the cash management reporting data from banks.

So what does this mean for banks and their commercial banking digital channels and products? I’ve written before about the value of banks investing in richer, more consistent, and accessible data and the new types of solutions that can be delivered to clients. The advent of AI and copilots in the finance function will transform efficiency in finance operations, especially in SMEs. Expectations will be raised and the goalposts will move for banks. As their clients continue prioritizing information and insights, banks must reconsider how their products add new value to treasury and finance teams.