We live in an era where fears of ChatGPT replacing jobs abound. But I prefer this perspective: “AI won’t take your job, but someone who can use it might.”

As a financial analyst, let’s discuss how you can utilize ChatGPT for financial analysis. Adopting new technologies and integrating them into your workflow is the key to maintaining your skills as relevant and sought-after.

Several excellent financial analyses of ChatGPT use cases and best practices may not be immediately apparent. This tool would’ve significantly enhanced financial analysts’ skills and job performance if it had been available years ago. Fortunately, these resources are accessible today and offer significant benefits.

So, how can ChatGPT help financial analysts?

Let’s identify and explain four key use cases.

  • Excel Enhancements: Discover how ChatGPT can streamline your Excel tasks.
  • Financial Analysis: Learn how ChatGPT aids in analyzing financial data and reports.
  • Presentation Creation: Explore the benefits of using ChatGPT to create engaging presentations.
  • Business Queries: Leverage AI for tailored business questions.

Excel Enhancements

Excel remains the preferred and go-to tool for financial analysis. In my Data Analysis with ChatGPT in Excel course, I demonstrated various unique use cases to students, such as how beginners can upload an Excel sheet page and ask ChatGPT for assistance. This often accelerates learning compared to searching Google or finding the right YouTube video.

You can also use the AI tool to clean your data. For example, I was astonished when ChatGPT reorganized a table into a format that allowed the creation of a pivot table.

In other instances, ChatGPT has helped me map categories, like when I had to create a list of country names from their abbreviated forms.

If you’ve spent several years working in Excel, you’ll find that ChatGPT can also help write sophisticated formulas and even VBA code. Therefore, I recommend financial analysts integrate AI when working in Excel.

Financial Analysis

One of the most fascinating aspects of ChatGPT for financial analysis is how much information it can digest and work with. Many listed companies generate annual reports of around 200 pages, often requiring days to read, which is impractical in today’s fast-paced world.

Consider uploading such documents in ChatGPT and asking relevant questions like “What are the key financial highlights?” or “Can you identify any risk factors mentioned?” This ability to rapidly extract and summarize critical information from extensive documents allows financial analysts to stay ahead in a competitive market.

Additionally, ChatGPT for financial analysis can help pinpoint trends, perform ratio analysis, and even generate insights on financial stability—providing a more efficient way to manage and interpret large volumes of data.

But we’re still in the early days of using AI, and sometimes, mistakes can be made—so you must be ready to double-check your work and always pay attention to the AI-generated output.

Presentation Creation

ChatGPT can significantly improve presentation creation. Not only can it assist with refining language and suggesting better phrasing, but it can also help organize the overall structure of your presentation. This is invaluable for creating engaging and professional presentations that communicate complex information clearly and effectively.

Business Queries

We can also use AI as our personal assistant when struggling to perform an action, which benefits beginners and significantly helps intermediate and advanced Excel users.

In my early days as an M&A analyst at a large semiconductors company in Germany, I struggled to understand the business. With no electrical engineering background, I knew nothing about the company’s products and what drives value in the industry. Moreover, I soon realized that every sector has specific P&L and KPI formats that an analyst needs to learn quickly.

An AI assistant that could answer industry-specific questions would’ve been invaluable in 2013. Instead, I spent many evenings and nights reading an industry primer written by an investment bank and hoping to gain an overall idea.

ChatGPT for financial analysis is priceless for analysts, consultants, and financial advisors who lack specific expertise in business.

Utilizing ChatGPT for Financial Analysis

ChatGPT represents a transformative tool for financial analysts—empowering them to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and strategic insight across various tasks. From refining Excel operations to extracting valuable insights from extensive financial reports, AI—like ChatGPT—has vast capabilities.

Adapting to the evolving landscape of financial analysis with advanced technologies protects your career and positions you at the forefront of innovation. Integrating ChatGPT for financial analysis into your toolkit helps you keep up and lead in this fast-paced industry.  

I highly recommend the 365 Financial Analyst Program if you want to enhance your financial analyst skills and learn practical applications of ChatGPT in Excel. It offers comprehensive training and teaches all the practical aspects you need to become a financial analyst from scratch.

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