Excel at AI in Finance | CFO, FP&A, AI Tools, Claude, Microsoft Copilot

AI in Finance gets six in ten right. What do you do with the other four? What changes in your AI tools every time a new version drops? Which finance jobs only need to be done decently? HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE Mike gave AI in finance the kind of performance review a finance manager gives an entry-level analyst. On a test built from junior finance analyst work, the best AI gets about six in ten answers right, behaves differently every time its maker ships a new version, and needs re-checking like a new hire who hasn't learned your numbers yet. He uses it every day anyway. Mike shows CFOs and FP&A leads how to manage AI like an average analyst on the team: hand it the finance work where decent is good enough, and re-check its numbers after every update before they reach a report. RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED Vals AI Finance Agent benchmark (the "6 in 10" score): https://www.vals.ai/benchmarks/finance_agent Generative AI at Work, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2025 (5,172 customer support agents, 15% more problems solved per hour) Noy and Zhang, Science, 2023 (453 professionals, 40% faster with ChatGPT, quality up 18%) How Is ChatGPT's Behavior Changing over Time? (GPT-4 went from 84% to 51%): https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.09009 Anthropic model deprecations (Claude Sonnet 4.5 retires November 30, 2026): https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/model-deprecations This episode's sponsor is Finance AI Lab. Get 7 hours a week back. Members who finish their first four roadmaps get about seven hours a week back, and you can earn up to 15 live CPE credits a year from a NASBA-registered sponsor. $99 a month, cancel anytime. https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Contact -> [email protected] Podcast -> https://www.f9finance.com/podcast Connect -> Finance AI Lab, the private community for finance pros learning AI: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Instagram -> @f9finance TikTok -> @f9finance Resources -> https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/ Next Steps: Step 1: Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@f9finance/ Step 2: Get a free set of ready-to-use AI prompts and templates for finance work with the AI Library: https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/ Step 3: Ready to launch your finance team into AI? Join the Finance AI Lab: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Excel at AI in Finance is for the finance pro, executive, and CFO looking to take their work to the next level. Mike is a senior finance leader breaking down AI tools like Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and beyond to reduce hours and prevent burnout. If you're ready to break free from burnout in corporate finance and FP&A, it's time to invest in AI for Finance. F9 Finance LLC is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.NASBARegistry.org. Sponsor ID 172180.

Which Microsoft Copilot agents are switched on in your finance team right now? Has your AI policy caught up with what your AI tools can do? What happens when a Copilot agent edits a file nobody asked it to touch? HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE Microsoft Copilot and other AI tools for business now come with agents, helpers that open your files and make changes on their own. Many are on by default. Almost every big company has an AI policy, yet half of the ones using AI agents haven't updated it to cover them, so Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio agents are landing in finance teams before anyone writes the rules. Mike walks CFOs and FP&A leads through what's switching on, why a ban backfires, and the one-page AI agent policy he'd write for a finance team. RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED Microsoft 365 Copilot: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot Microsoft Copilot Studio: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot/microsoft-copilot-studio EY AI Risk and Governance Survey (the "half haven't updated their AI policy" stat): https://www.ey.com/en_us/newsroom/2026/09/ey-survey-finds-that-autonomous-ai-implementation-outpaces-oversight-yielding-an-ai-governance-gap This episode is sponsored by Octopus AI, Artificial Financial Intelligence for finance teams. Octopus saves the explanations behind your variances, and the decisions that came with them, right next to the numbers. It brings business input into your rolling forecast for your team to review and approve, so there's less chasing people for the same answers. Book a demo: https://myoctopus.ai/book-a-demo?utm_source=f9finance&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=finance-ai-insider-oct-2026 Contact -> [email protected] Podcast -> https://www.f9finance.com/podcast Connect -> Finance AI Lab, the private community for finance pros learning AI: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Instagram -> @f9finance TikTok -> @f9finance Resources -> https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/ Next Steps: Step 1: Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@f9finance/ Step 2: Get a free set of ready-to-use AI prompts and templates for finance work with the AI Library: https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/ Step 3: Ready to launch your finance team into AI? Join the Finance AI Lab: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Excel at AI in Finance is for the finance pro, executive, and CFO looking to take their work to the next level. Mike is a senior finance leader breaking down AI tools like Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and beyond to reduce hours and prevent burnout. If you're ready to break free from burnout in corporate finance and FP&A, it's time to invest in AI for Finance.

If AI does the junior analyst work, where do junior analysts learn? Who becomes the senior person on your team five years from now? How did you learn to spot a wrong number? HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE Companies are hiring far fewer entry-level finance pros, because AI tools now handle the slow, boring work a new hire used to spend years on. That work was also the training. You learn to spot a wrong number by making a few hundred of them yourself, so Mike asks who becomes the experienced person on your team five years from now if nobody starts at the bottom. His answer is good news for anyone who already put in those years: your experience just got more valuable. If you're a CFO or FP&A lead, passing it down is now part of your job. This episode's sponsor is Finance AI Lab. Members who finish their first four roadmaps get about seven hours a week back. Ninety-nine dollars a month, cancel anytime. https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Contact -> [email protected] Podcast -> https://www.f9finance.com/podcast Connect -> Finance AI Lab, the private community for finance pros learning AI: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Instagram -> @f9finance TikTok -> @f9finance Resources -> https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/ Next Steps: Step 1: Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@f9finance/ Step 2: Get a free set of ready-to-use AI prompts and templates for finance work with the AI Library: https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/ Step 3: Ready to launch your finance team into AI? Join the Finance AI Lab: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Excel at AI in Finance is for the finance pro, executive, and CFO looking to take their work to the next level. Mike is a senior finance leader breaking down AI tools like Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and beyond to reduce hours and prevent burnout. If you’re ready to break free from burnout in corporate finance and FP&A, it’s time to invest in AI for Finance.

If AI can build the dashboard in minutes, why learn Power BI at all? Who tells the AI what "revenue" means on your team? What happens when the dashboard looks right and the numbers are wrong? HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE Mike has spent the year showing AI tools build his Power BI dashboards, so finance pros keep asking whether Power BI is still worth learning. His answer is yes. AI can draw the charts in minutes, but it only gets the numbers right after a person tells it what each number means, and for FP&A teams that definition work is still the job. The guy who kept saying "replaced" is now explaining what's left, and he closes with three things he'd do about it. This episode's sponsor is Finance AI Lab. Members who finish their first four roadmaps get about seven hours a week back. Ninety-nine dollars a month, cancel anytime. https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Contact -> [email protected] Podcast -> https://www.f9finance.com/podcast Connect -> Finance AI Lab, the private community for finance pros learning AI: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Instagram -> @f9finance TikTok -> @f9finance Resources -> https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/ Next Steps: Step 1: Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@f9finance/ Step 2: Get a free set of ready-to-use AI prompts and templates for finance work with the AI Library: https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/ Step 3: Ready to launch your finance team into AI? Join the Finance AI Lab: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Excel at AI in Finance is for the finance pro, executive, and CFO looking to take their work to the next level. Mike is a senior finance leader breaking down AI tools like Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and beyond to reduce hours and prevent burnout. If you’re ready to break free from burnout in corporate finance and FP&A, it’s time to invest in AI for Finance.

Your AI tools got the number right. Can you show how? If your auditor asked who checked the AI's answer, who would raise their hand? Do you have a record of what you asked the AI to do? HIGHLIGHTS OF EPISODE Most finance teams now use AI tools to help produce their numbers, and most of the time the tools get it right. Then the auditor shows up. Most teams can't answer, because nobody kept a record of what the AI was asked or who checked the answer before it went into the report. Mike walks CFOs and finance pros through the three things an auditor will ask and what to have ready for each, so you can keep using AI and still enjoy a boring audit. This episode's sponsor is Finance AI Lab. Members who finish their first four roadmaps get about seven hours a week back. Ninety-nine dollars a month, cancel anytime. https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Contact -> [email protected] Podcast -> https://www.f9finance.com/podcast Connect -> Finance AI Lab, the private community for finance pros learning AI: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Instagram -> @f9finance TikTok -> @f9finance Resources -> https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/ Next Steps: Step 1: Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@f9finance/ Step 2: Get a free set of ready-to-use AI prompts and templates for finance work with the AI Library: https://www.f9finance.com/ai-library/ Step 3: Ready to launch your finance team into AI? Join the Finance AI Lab: https://www.f9finance.com/lab/ Excel at AI in Finance is for the finance pro, executive, and CFO looking to take their work to the next level. Mike is a senior finance leader breaking down AI tools like Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and beyond to reduce hours and prevent burnout. If you’re ready to break free from burnout in corporate finance and FP&A, it’s time to invest in AI for Finance.