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Finance teams can now use their AI assistant of choice in Excel while staying connected to governed planning data, workflows, and audit trails through Board for Microsoft 365.
Finance teams are entering a new era of planning and analysis.
AI assistants are rapidly becoming part of everyday work in Excel. Analysts are asking questions in natural language, generating commentary, exploring scenarios, and accelerating reporting cycles with tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Claude.
But as AI adoption grows across Finance, a critical question emerges:
How do you ensure AI-driven work remains connected to trusted planning data, governed workflows, and auditable processes?
The challenge isn’t choosing the right AI model. The challenge is ensuring whichever AI your teams use operates within a governed planning environment.
Today, Board is extending the Board for Microsoft 365 Add-in to support AI-powered experiences with ChatGPT Enterprise, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Claude for Excel, allowing finance teams to work with the AI tools they prefer while keeping every analysis, forecast, and decision connected to the Board Enterprise Planning Platform.
The market is moving quickly, and new AI capabilities appear almost daily. For Finance, however, the problem isn’t access to AI. It’s trust.
When AI is pointed at a spreadsheet, it typically works against a static snapshot of data. It doesn’t understand business hierarchies, planning drivers, workflow approvals, organizational context, or the assumptions behind the numbers. It cannot write back into governed planning processes, and it often lacks the auditability required by finance organizations.
The result is a familiar set of challenges:
These are not AI problems. They are planning and governance problems.
And that’s where Board provides a unique advantage.
The Board for Microsoft 365 Add-in already enables finance teams to work in Excel while remaining connected to live enterprise planning models.
Users can access governed data, refresh reports, submit inputs, participate in workflows, and write back directly into Board, all while staying in the environment they know best.
Now, that same foundation can power AI-assisted workflows. Rather than treating AI as a disconnected layer operating on spreadsheets, Board provides the planning intelligence that gives AI meaningful business context.
That includes:
In other words, AI no longer sees just numbers. It operates against the organization’s planning model. This enables more relevant analysis, more trustworthy recommendations, and more consistent outcomes across teams.
Excel remains the primary workspace for many finance professionals.
Our goal is not to replace Excel. The goal is to make the work happening inside Excel faster, smarter, and more connected to enterprise planning.
Finance teams spend significant time investigating drivers, preparing commentary, and explaining performance.
With Board for Microsoft 365 and your AI of choice:
Forecast cycles often require evaluating multiple assumptions, testing scenarios, and understanding the impact of changes across the business.
With Board for Microsoft 365 and your AI of choice:
Finance teams constantly receive requests that fall outside predefined reports.
Instead of rebuilding pivots or creating one-off analyses, users can ask questions in natural language and receive answers grounded in governed Board data, complete with context and lineage.
Organizations are rarely standardizing on a single AI platform.
Some teams prefer Copilot because of its Microsoft 365 integration. Others leverage ChatGPT Enterprise for its flexibility and ecosystem. Many are adopting Claude for advanced reasoning and analytical workflows.
Board believes customers should have the freedom to use the AI platform that best fits their needs. We provide the governed planning foundation that makes those AI tools useful for Finance.
No matter which AI model users choose, Board remains the source of trusted data, planning logic, workflow governance, and decision intelligence.
Watch this demo from our product team to see the Board for Microsoft 365 Add-in + Claude in action.
As AI becomes embedded in everyday finance workflows, some organizations ask an important question: If AI is available in Excel, why do I need Board Agents?
The answer is simple: they solve different problems.
Board for Microsoft 365 with AI helps individual users work more efficiently. It accelerates analysis, improves productivity, and helps finance teams answer questions faster within their existing workflows.
Board Agents boost individual productivity and operate at an enterprise-wide decision level.
They orchestrate enterprise-wide planning processes, coordinate decisions across departments, automate governed workflows, and create reusable planning intelligence that extends beyond any single user or spreadsheet.
Think of it this way:
Together, they create a powerful combination: productivity for individuals and Continuous Planning transformation for the enterprise.
Moreover, the primary Board offering is the Board Agents as they are directly plugged into our full data model and can leverage that to its full extent, using any hierarchy or dataset or calculation rule on request. On the other hand, AI agents in Excel will always be bounded to the data that an Excel workbook is capable to handle .
Finance leaders do not need to choose between innovation and control.
They need a way to bring AI into the workflows where planning, forecasting, and decision-making already happen without compromising governance, auditability, or trust.
By combining Excel, leading AI platforms, and the Board Enterprise Planning Platform, organizations can empower finance teams to move faster while maintaining a single source of truth across the business.
Board for Microsoft 365
Your Excel. Your AI of Choice. One Governed Plan.
Get a tour of the Enterprise Planning Platform in action.
