Happy Thursday,

AI isn’t slowing down—and neither should we. This newsletter is your shortcut to practical ideas and smarter strategies to grow, lead, and adapt as tech reshapes our industry.

To take it one step further, I’ve launched a new YouTube series. Each month, I’m sharing quick, tactical videos showing how advisors can use tools like ChatGPT to save time, think better, and scale more efficiently—starting with the work you're already doing.

Watch my latest episode here

The AI Edge

Helping advisors scale from 1 person to many people.

AI Application:

Shortcut

Overview:

Shortcut is an AI-powered Excel agent that builds complex spreadsheets through natural conversation. Think of it as having a junior analyst who never gets tired, never makes attitude adjustments, and works at superhuman speed. You describe what you need in plain English, and it constructs the entire spreadsheet structure, formulas, formatting, and analysis from scratch. The tool gained attention when it reportedly outperformed first-year analysts from McKinsey and Goldman Sachs in head-to-head comparisons. What makes it remarkable isn't just the final product—it's the transparency. You watch every step as it thinks through problems, asks clarifying questions, and builds your solution piece by piece. Excel's language has become English.

How to apply Shortcut to the business today:

• Build client financial planning templates by describing retirement scenarios and having it create multi-sheet workbooks with cash flow projections, withdrawal analysis, and visual dashboards

• Generate investment comparison spreadsheets by requesting side-by-side portfolio analysis with performance metrics, risk calculations, and scenario modeling

• Create client presentation materials by asking for formatted data visualization with charts, key insights, and executive summaries that update automatically

• Develop internal business analytics by describing KPIs you want to track and letting it build comprehensive dashboards with formulas and conditional formatting

• Construct proposal templates by outlining fee structures, service comparisons, and ROI calculations that adapt to different client situations

Advanced:

• Build dynamic Monte Carlo simulation models by describing market scenarios and having it create probability-based retirement outcome projections with multiple variable inputs

• Develop client onboarding assessment tools that automatically calculate risk tolerance scores, asset allocation recommendations, and goal achievement probabilities

• Create regulatory compliance tracking systems with automated calculations for suitability requirements, concentration limits, and rebalancing triggers

• Construct sophisticated tax planning models that integrate multiple scenarios, bracket projections, and optimization strategies across different account types

• Build client communication automation that generates personalized performance reports with commentary based on market conditions and individual circumstances

What could this application mean for the future of our business?

We're witnessing the democratization of analytical sophistication. The barrier between having an idea and executing complex financial analysis is disappearing. Every advisor becomes capable of building institutional-grade modeling tools without Excel expertise or programming knowledge. This isn't just about efficiency—it's about expanding our analytical reach. Suddenly, the sophisticated planning tools once reserved for high-net-worth clients become accessible across all service tiers. Clients will begin expecting this level of analytical depth because the cost of producing it approaches zero. The competitive advantage shifts from who can afford the best analytical resources to who can ask the most insightful questions. We're moving toward a world where the quality of our thinking, not our technical skills, determines the value we deliver.

See Shortcut in action:

Watch as Shortcut builds me a comprehensive retirement planning spreadsheet from a single conversational prompt. You'll see it ask clarifying questions about inflation assumptions, create multiple worksheet tabs for different retirement phases, and generate automated insights that change based on the data. The most striking moment: watching it self-correct formatting issues in real-time while explaining its reasoning. This 11-minute demonstration shows why Excel mastery might become as obsolete as manual calculation.

-Matt