Which AI Agent Helps Equity Research Analysts More?: Claude for Excel vs Shortcut.ai

Описание: Can AI handle the "low-value" tasks of financial modeling without compromising accuracy?

Most AI hype fails when you actually get into the weeds of a complex spreadsheet. As a 30-year veteran of equity research—with experience at firms like Morgan Stanley—I spent the last few weeks stress-testing Claude in Excel versus Shortcut.ai to see if they can actually save us time.

In this evaluation, I move past the marketing talk to see if these agents can handle the "plumbing" of our job, from building models for longevity to auditing thousands of cells for creeping mistakes.

The 5-Task Evaluation Framework
I evaluated both agents across five specific tasks:
1. Auditing: Finding mistakes in a 10-year model with DCF
2. Improving: Recommending elegant solutions to improve efficiency or accuracy
3. Comparing: Comparing a model against consensus
4. Updating: Taking over the "low-value" grind of updating models after earnings
5. Model Building: Using a template to build a new three-statement model from scratch

Timestamps
00:00 Intro: AI Hype vs. Reality
00:40 The Analyst Framework
01:57 The Analyst-Style Rating Scale
03:46 UI Overview & The Testing Template
06:34 Explaining Model Circularity
09:03 Task 1: Auditing the Model
11:51 Task 2: Improving the Model
14:26 Task 3: Comparing to Consensus
15:36 Task 4: Updating the Model (Earnings Season)
18:39 Task 5: Building Models from Scratch
19:42 Shortcut.ai Builds a Starbucks Model
27:30 Claude in Excel Builds a Starbucks Model
29:44 Model Building Verdict
31:01 User Interface, Memory & "Skills"
33:30 Pricing, Credits & Usage Limits
36:29 Bonus: Catching AI Hallucinations
37:46 Final Verdict & Conclusion

Key Takeaways and Transparency
Objective Analysis: I purchased both tools and was not paid or sponsored by either app.
Performance: While both caught errors, suggested good improvements, and could identify how the model differed from consensus, Shortcut.ai significantly outperformed Claude in updating models and gathering historical data. Shortcut did well in basic model building, albeit with handholding, where Claude failed. Neither agent is ready to build a 500-line, quarterly-detailed model independently.

Tools Mentioned:
Shortcut.ai: @tryshortcut
Claude for Excel: @anthropic-ai
FactSet @FactSetSolutions (consensus data)

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