Zansa › Answers › Forecasting and data science
Can AI assistants like ChatGPT be trusted to calculate numbers from my spreadsheets?
Not blindly. Language models can misread data, make arithmetic mistakes and sound confident while wrong. They are more reliable when they write code or formulas that actually run on the data, and you check the results against a known total. Treat their numbers as drafts until verified.
Language models predict plausible text rather than performing exact calculation, though tools connected to a code environment can compute properly. Even then, the model may interpret columns incorrectly, drop rows or misapply a filter.
Verification steps:
- Reconcile totals with your source system.
- Test the logic on a small case you can calculate by hand.
- Ask it to show the formulas or code, then review them.
- Keep sensitive data out unless approved.
For important reporting, a repeatable pipeline is safer than a chat.
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