AI is the headline for so many news stories today, and when I talk with Tiller customers, I hear a range of views about it.
“AI is helping me with everything else. How can it help me with my money?”
“I don’t want to touch AI with a ten-foot pole, so please keep it out of my financial data.”
“My head is spinning. What does all of this mean?”
Tiller was founded to help you confidently manage your money, your way. Today that includes how you feel about AI and your personal finances. I want to share how we’re thinking about AI at Tiller while addressing your questions on this topic.
I want AI working with me in my finances. How can Tiller help?
Having your financial life in a spreadsheet is incredibly powerful for AI. Copilot in Excel offers helpful ways to engage with your data. This year Claude in Excel was an earthquake for spreadsheet lovers that took it to a whole new level. With the right prompts, you can now analyze data and build Excel reports in seconds. Gemini in Sheets is rapidly developing into a powerful in-spreadsheet experience as well.
Outside the spreadsheet, you can easily share your file with OpenAI, Claude, or Gemini via their chat interfaces. That could mean giving the LLM access to your OneDrive, Google Drive, or desktop so it can read the live file you’re using with Tiller, or simply copying and pasting your file.
Beyond the plumbing built into every LLM to manage and manipulate spreadsheets, we’re also experimenting with new ways (if you opt in) to connect your Tiller spreadsheet automatically to the LLM of your choice.
Our beta MCP server for Claude is a powerful example that lets you ask questions, categorize transactions, and generate reports using Claude on your phone or computer.
We believe spreadsheets are the perfect architecture if you want to use LLMs.
Tiller ensures your Excel or Google Sheets spreadsheet is updated daily with your latest transactions and balances. You can create multiple spreadsheets and choose which accounts feed into which spreadsheets. You can pick which spreadsheet to share with an LLM, or share the same spreadsheet with multiple LLMs to compare answers.
If you ever want to dig deeper, you can always inspect the original spreadsheet to see your numbers; that’s your source of truth and it’s always within reach. Spreadsheets are also the ideal way to securely archive your tax data or end-of-year reports in a format you can access anytime for records or audits.
In addition to interrogating your data with your LLM of choice, our new AI Suggest feature automatically categorizes transactions based on your unique categories and your past categorized transactions. AI Suggest is opt-in, and it’s been a customer favorite since its recent release.
Tiller and spreadsheets are meant for AI, and it’s already been an unlock for many customers who found that an LLM in their spreadsheet brought them financial clarity faster and more easily than before.
Please keep AI out of my financial data
It’s simple: if you don’t want AI, you don’t need to explain yourself. We get it, and Tiller is a great home for you. Tiller doesn’t need LLMs to deliver powerful financial clarity, and Tiller won’t share your transactions and balances with an LLM without your consent. We know that AI is not needed for financial clarity.
Tiller’s core principles predated LLMs and haven’t changed since: we bring your financial life together in your own private spreadsheet, updated daily, so you can gain clarity efficiently and move forward with confidence. We believe a spreadsheet is the one financial tool you’ll never outgrow. That was true of the first VisiCalc spreadsheet in 1979, and it remains true today.
In the same spirit, longtime customers know we value your privacy. By default, the humans at Tiller don’t see your transactions and balances.
I don’t know what AI means for my money
The principles of good financial health don’t change with AI. Spend less than you make for most of your life. Build a reserve to handle emergencies. Pay down consumer debt and save for the future. Share your prosperity by giving back.
Our team wakes up every day focused on your financial health. You don’t need to know about AI and LLMs. The default experience uses no LLMs on your transactions and balances, and if you ever want to try an LLM, it will be easy when you do.
What’s the recipe for financial clarity?
Every Saturday as a kid, my dad sat down with me to walk through my finances on a paper ledger. I recorded my earnings and I set aside part for spending, saving, and sharing with others through charity.
Years later, when my own family grew busier and my wife and I needed the same clarity, I built Tiller to efficiently manage our money so we could focus on everything else in life that was more important.
I know the principles my dad taught me with a pencil and paper remain the core principles anyone needs for financial well-being. That is what guides our work at Tiller. AI doesn’t change those principles one bit.
