A fresh AI agent has appeared for those who dedicate substantial time to spreadsheets.
Check out Shortcut AI’s site, and you will encounter a page that resembles a blank Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, yet features a sidebar chatbot intended to assist with tasks such as creating intricate financial models or conducting competitive analyses.
Shortcut is agentic, meaning it can perform multi-step tasks for users, surpassing mere formula generation or data analysis within spreadsheets. During a demonstration on X, Nico Christie, the founder and CEO of Shortcut AI, showcased how the tool substituted data from a Microsoft distributed cash flow analysis (DCF) with Google data, retrieving Google’s SEC filings and populating the template with the updated information.
Shortcut was launched on Monday with the slogan: “Try Shortcut (before your boss does).” Christie noted on X that the Shortcut Excel agent “one-shots most knowledge work tasks on Excel.”
In the launch video, Christie mentioned that Shortcut’s capabilities were evaluated in private equity, banking, consulting, and product management roles against first-year analysts from McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, and other companies.
As per managers from these firms, Shortcut “defeated” the analysts 89.1 percent of the time, although the method for determining this “win rate” is not clarified. Christie also asserted that Shortcut outperformed ChatGPT Agent 90 percent of the time. Mashable cannot independently verify these assertions.
The emergence of agentic work tools like Shortcut aligns with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s forecast that AI could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar positions. Historically, disruptive technologies have primarily targeted manual labor and blue-collar jobs through automation and robotics. Today’s sophisticated AI models aim to automate tedious desk work and even intricate office tasks. A recent study by SignalFire revealed a decline in hiring for entry-level tech positions, signaling AI’s influence on the job market is already underway.
The hopeful perspective is that tools like Shortcut will support workers by automating repetitive tasks, freeing up more time for creative and strategic endeavors that AI is less proficient at. The outcome may differ by company, but agentic AI is already shaping how employees engage with their roles.
The Shortcut AI agent is positioned as a secret advantage for finance professionals, consultants, and others. You can modify existing Excel files within Shortcut and export them back to Excel. “No one would ever know that it was created in Shortcut,” Christie stated in the launch video.
Frequent spreadsheet users are starting to pay attention. “It seems like a huge portion of finance workflow has been automated by AI,” remarked finance creator and writer @HighYieldHarry on X.
“This represents a monumental moment for the Finance sector! Exciting times ahead,” shared Michael Yuan, cofounder of the fintech company Waverly AI.
Yuan also pointed out some of Shortcut’s present limitations: it operates slowly and has formatting glitches. Christie himself admitted that it’s “not perfect” and needs to be more user-friendly for review.
How to experience Shortcut AI
Shortcut provides two plans: Shortcut Pro at $40 a month or Shortcut Max at $200 a month, which includes everything offered in the Pro subscription along with unlimited access to its more advanced model and additional benefits. There is also a 7-day