AI Stack for Strategy & Planning
My working reference for strategy and finance professionals navigating the modern AI stack. Two macro categories: the individual productivity tools you use at your own desk, and the enterprise platforms your organization deploys for planning, analytics, and reporting. I used many tools in daily basis, and have tried, tested the others.
Last updated June 2026. Refreshed quarterly.
A. Individual Productivity Stack
Seat-licensed tools a strategy or finance professional uses at their own desk. Low procurement friction. Decision lives with the user. The goal here is to compress your analytical cycle from days to hours.
A1. Frontier reasoning models
The base layer. Pick a primary, learn it deeply, treat the others as situational.
| Tool | What it does | Links |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic Claude (Opus 4.6 / Sonnet 4.6 / Haiku 4.5) | Advanced reasoning, long-context analysis, strategy synthesis, complex writing. | claude.ai |
| OpenAI ChatGPT (Enterprise / Plus) | Broad capability, strong ecosystem, plugins, GPTs, and agent features. | chatgpt.com |
| Google Gemini Advanced | Strong multimodality, Google ecosystem integration, research and analysis. | gemini.google.com |
| Claude Code | AI coding assistant in your terminal. Great for data work and automation. | claude.ai/code |
A2. Research and market intelligence
Competitive intelligence, due diligence, market sizing, validating forecast assumptions.
| Tools | What it does | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Perplexity AI | Real-time web search with clickable citations. Defensible sources for board-ready numbers. | perplexity.ai |
| AlphaSense & Tegus | Public-market research platform. Earnings transcripts, filings, broker research, Workflow Agents. | alpha-sense.com |
| Hebbia | AI associate for buy-side and corp dev. Synthesizes Bloomberg, transcripts, primary documents. | hebbia.com |
A3. Excel and spreadsheet AI
Spreadsheets are still the most-used analytical tool in finance. The AI layer on top is now significant.
| Tools | What it does | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Shortcut | Excel-native financial modeling agent. Three-statement models, formatting, historical data. | tryshortcut.ai |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel | AI inside Excel. Formula generation, ad hoc table analysis, Power BI insights. | microsoft.com/copilot |
| Google Sheets Gemini | Gemini in Sheets. Collaborative analysis; weaker on complex multi-tab models. | workspace.google.com |
A4. Personal productivity and workspace
The “second brain” layer. Notes, tasks, projects, personal databases, and now AI agents that run across all of it.
| Tools | What is does | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Notion (with AI Agents) | Workspace and second brain. AI Agents run 20 min autonomously across Notion, Slack, Gmail. | notion.com |
| Coda (now Superhuman) | Docs, databases, mini-apps with AI. Stronger than Notion on database logic. | coda.io |
| Mem | AI-native capture and recall. Lightweight inbox layer; good complement to Notion. | mem.ai |
A5. Personal knowledge management
Build a custom AI assistant grounded in a body of sources you picked. Strategy report reads, contract reviews, board prep.
| Tools | What is does | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Google NotebookLM | Personal RAG over up to 50 sources per notebook. Audio Overviews and Deep Research. | notebooklm.google.com |
| Claude Projects/Cowork | Persistent context for recurring workflows. Lightest curated-corpus tool | claude.ai |
| ChatGPT Projects + Custom GPTs | OpenAI equivalent. Custom GPTs codify recurring tasks in your house style. | chatgpt.com |
| Sana AI | No-code AI agents grounded in enterprise sources. Access company knowledge, generate content, and automate repetitive tasks across various integrated apps and large language models | sanalabs.com |
| Harvey | Specialized legal AI. M&A diligence and contract review at scale. | harvey.ai |
A6. Slides, presentations, and visual artifacts
Self-explained.
| Tools | What is does | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Copilot in PowerPoint | AI inside PowerPoint. First-cut board slides from data and source docs. | microsoft.com/copilot |
| Gamma | Web-format presentations, fast. Pitch decks without two hours of layout work. | gamma.app |
| Claude Artifacts | One-off interactive visualizations and simple dashboards inside Claude. | claude.ai |
B. Enterprise AI Stack
Platforms the organization deploys for planning, analytics, reporting, and operations. High procurement friction. Decision lives with the CFO, CIO, or CTO. Most of the durability work for AI lives here.
B1. Core data and intelligence layer
The foundation. Enterprise AI is useless without a governed data architecture; this is the plumbing.
| Tool | What is does | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Snowflake Cortex AI | Cloud data warehouse with embedded AI. Text-to-SQL, in-warehouse LLM functions, document AI. | snowflake.com |
| Databricks (Mosaic AI) | ML workloads and unstructured data. Most enterprises pair it with Snowflake. | databricks.com |
| Google BigQuery + Gemini in BigQuery | Google-side warehouse with embedded Gemini. Right for Google-centric orgs. | cloud.google.com/bigquery |
| Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft’s unified data platform. Power BI + Synapse + Copilot in one surface. | microsoft.com/fabric |
B2. FP&A and planning platforms with embedded AI
Where the “AI for Finance” buying conversation happens. Platforms converge on feature set; they differ on org-size fit and implementation time.
| Tool | What is does | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Anaplan | Enterprise scale. Marketplace ecosystem. 6 to 12 month implementations. $2B+ orgs. | anaplan.com |
| Workday Adaptive Planning | Upper mid-market. Native Workday HCM and Financials integration. 3 to 6 months. | workday.com/adaptive |
| Pigment | Growth-stage tech default. Visual scenario modeling. $50M to $500M B2B SaaS. | pigment.com |
| Vena Solutions | Excel-native FP&A platform with governance and AI behind the scenes. | venasolutions.com |
| Cube | Spreadsheet-native (Excel and Google Sheets). Lightest implementation in the category. | cubesoftware.com |
B3. BI and visualization with embedded AI
Dashboards are moving from static charts to conversational interfaces.
| Tool | What it does | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Power BI (with Copilot) | Market-share leader. Natural-language exec queries on governed data. Microsoft-shop default. | powerbi.microsoft.com |
| Tableau (Salesforce Agentforce) | Tableau AI under the Agentforce brand. Advanced viz plus embedded agents. | tableau.com |
| Looker | Premium platform integrated into the Google Cloud Platform. | https://cloud.google.com/looker |
| Hex | Analytical apps closer to notebooks than dashboards. Interactive team apps. | hex.tech |
| Sigma | Spreadsheet-feeling cloud BI on the warehouse. Finance-friendly. | sigmacomputing.com |
B4. Universal productivity copilots
Dominate enterprise seat count because they integrate natively into tools teams already use.
| Tool | What is does | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | Embedded in Excel, Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word. Microsoft-shop default. | microsoft.com/copilot |
| Google Workspace Gemini | Workspace equivalent. Strongest in Sheets and Docs; Slides trails PowerPoint. | workspace.google.com |
B5. Agentic AI orchestration and infrastructure
The control plane for AI agents that touch multiple systems. Determines whether AI work scales beyond one workflow..
| Tool | What it does | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot Studio + Azure AI Foundry | Leads enterprise orchestration (38.6%). Azure-shop default. | microsoft.com/copilot-studio |
| OpenAI Assistants and Responses API | OpenAI orchestration layer. Second place in enterprise adoption. Lightweight to start | platform.openai.com |
| Anthropic Claude + MCP | Model Context Protocol: enterprise integration standard. 9,400+ public servers. | modelcontextprotocol.io |
| Salesforce Agentforce | CRM-native orchestration. Right when Salesforce is the system of record. | salesforce.com/agentforce |