Asking analysts, how are you actually using AI in your modeling workflow in 2026 (and what's banned)
I'm a junior prepping for SA recruiting and trying to understand how analysts actually use AI day to day in 2026. Most of what's online is either AI hype or "AI bad" doom. Want the real workflow from people on the desk.
Specifically curious about:
1. What tools are people actually using (ChatGPT Plus, Claude, Perplexity, in-house bank LLM, custom GPTs) and for what tasks?
2. Where are people getting the biggest time savings? The patterns I keep hearing about in WSO threads (treat as community claims, not verified):
EXAMPLE areas where analysts say they're saving time (drop your own if these are off):
- Comps table prep
- 5-year forecast first draft
- Memo first draft language
- Industry primer reading
- Pitch deck company description boilerplate
- Earnings call summaries
3. Where is AI actually bad? The "model output is 80% there" framing keeps coming up. What's the 20% that breaks?
4. The compliance question. How are people actually handling client data? The hard rule I see in every thread: "never paste actual client data, ever." But the gray zone is huge. Anonymized data, structural descriptions, public filings. What's the line at your bank?
5. What got friends in trouble? I've heard stories of analysts pasting real CIMs into public ChatGPT and getting walked out. How real is that and what was the actual rule that got broken?
I'm using IBFlash, I heard it's a study tool that won't get you fired (it lives separately from any bank infra and only uses anonymized question content). The bigger question of "how do real analysts use AI on real deals" is what I'm trying to learn here from people who actually do it.
Drop your workflow. The kids recruiting for the 2027 SA class are going to need this.
The "I never paste client data" rule everyone says they follow, how does that actually work in practice? If you're describing a deal in third person to a public model to get a memo draft, is that "anonymized enough" or is that still the line? Genuine question.
Dumb shills lower the quality of content on wso.
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