Executive Summary

Across an estimated 200 million SMBs, hand-built spreadsheets create brittle, time-consuming workflows: formula spaghetti, hidden dependencies, manual copy-paste, and recurring errors that sap finance, operations, and sales teams of productivity and increase audit risk. These problems are especially acute for small teams without dedicated engineers or data engineers, who spend hours debugging, onboarding new hires, and rebuilding sheets rather than driving business insights. You could build an AI-driven add-on for Excel and Google Sheets that ingests workbooks, auto-detects data models, refactors formulas into named functions, generates unit tests and change-logs, and optionally exports sanitized logic to low-code workflows or SQL. Delivered as a lightweight SaaS with an intended $240 ACV and enterprise connector options, the product would pair an interactive assistant for on-the-fly formula generation with conservative, explainable refactors that users can approve. This is an attractive time to build: large improvements in LLM-driven code synthesis make reliable formula refactoring feasible, low-code/no-code adoption means non-engineers want this capability, and buyers generally prefer augmenting spreadsheets rather than replacing them—supporting a roughly $48.0B addressable layer. To stand out, prioritize explainability, deterministic regression testing, and strong security (customer-managed keys/on-prem options), plus deep native integrations and a library of industry-focused templates that drive quick ROI measured in time-saved and error reduction. Real challenges include preventing model hallucinations on sensitive financial logic, earning user trust with messy legacy files, and navigating pricing sensitivity among SMBs while competing with both low-code platforms and niche spreadsheet tools. These are manageable but require conservative defaults, human-in-the-loop approvals, audited change trails, and channel partnerships to scale distribution cost-effectively.

Market Opportunity

Messy hand-built spreadsheets — AI tool to automate, clean & modernize targets a $48.0B = 200M SMBs x $240 ACV (low-cost productivity layer addressing spreadsheet-heavy workflows) total addressable market with medium saturation and a year-over-year growth rate of 14% - driven by SaaS productivity growth and automation adoption.

Key trends driving demand: AI-for-code/formulas -- LLMs can synthesize and refactor spreadsheet logic, enabling automated cleanups and formula generation; Low-code/no-code adoption -- non-engineers demand tools that translate manual spreadsheets to robust workflows without heavy dev effort; Tool consolidation -- businesses prefer augmenting spreadsheets rather than replacing them, creating demand for add-ons and assistants.

Key competitors include Microsoft Excel (with Power Query / Office 365), Google Sheets (with Apps Script and Workspace), Airtable, Coda, Freelancers / Consultants (Upwork, Fiverr, specialist Excel consultants).

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Messy hand-built spreadsheets — AI tool to automate, clean & modernize

Executive Summary

Market Validation

Market Opportunity

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