You get this email because you subscribed to it on our website, or are one of our customers or prospects. If you're no longer interested in receiving our emails, you can unsubscribe using the link in the footer.

One of our THINK Community members runs a digital marketing agency. His biggest bottleneck? "Spending hours on client reporting, repetitive tasks instead of focusing on strategy."

Most reports are no longer necessary.

Early in my consulting career, I analyzed a Fortune 500 company's reporting system.

They had 200 Excel reports across finance and accounting. All "critical."

After three months of analysis, we cut them down to 20.

How does this happen? The same way it happens to you:

Most reports pull the same data, but are presented in different formats.

Built for people who'd left years ago. Hours to maintain, zero value delivered.

Here's what nobody tells you: You don't need consultants to fix this. You can do it with AI tools.

Two Paths Forward

Path 1: Eliminate Reports. If AI tools can access your data, you don't need pre-built reports. Just ask when you need answers.

Reports exist because data was once hard to get. Fifteen years ago, you manually pulled data, formatted it, and delivered it.

Now? AI tools can connect to your data sources, and you can get answers on demand.

Path 2: Keep What's Essential. Some reports must exist:

For example:

Either way, build a Digital Reporting Analyst. Twelve reports that took 6 hours now take 20 minutes.

My DIY Consultant Process

Here's exactly what we did as I used as a consultant. Now you can do it with Claude:

Step 1: List Every Report. For each, ask: What decision does it inform? Is it strategic? Performance tracking? Goal accountability?

Step 2: Find Patterns. You're probably creating variations because someone wants one element shown differently.

Step 3: Map Data Sources. Where's it coming from: Analytics, CRM, Stripe? What overlaps?

Step 4: Let Claude Interview You. Start with: "I spend hours on manual reports. Interview me about my workflow and help identify what I actually need."

Claude asks you questions:

Upload your reports. Ask Claude to identify what to consolidate, eliminate, and where you're pulling duplicate data.

Building Your Digital Analyst

Create a Claude Project. This maintains context and keeps everything organized.

Connect your data (pick your comfort level):

Don't build from scratch. Give Claude your existing reports: "Build a job description for a Digital Reporting Analyst to handle what remains after eliminating redundancies."

Test it: "Pull this week's data for Client X." Something off? "Revenue should be gross minus refunds. Try again."

After 2-3 tries, it gets it right. You're not debugging, you're talking to your Digital Reporting Analyst.

If you use ChatGPT to build this, you can schedule a task to run that notifies you.

Or use the new Agent Builder to create an agentic workflow that handles the entire process. You can streamline everything with native AI tools, such as Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT.

The Bottom Line

That Fortune 500 company? With today's AI, they might need only 5 scheduled reports. Everything else could be on demand.

You're probably there too. Building variations because clients want different formats. Because you've always done it this way.

Here's what matters: Don't automate bad processes. Eliminate them first.

Before automating anything, question if it should exist at all.

Stop the data mining. Stop building 10 versions of the same report. Start focusing on strategy.

Your Digital Reporting Analyst can handle the rest.

Before you go, if you are interested in an AI Business & Financial Certification, check our sponsor, Columbia Business School's program.

Marvin

The AI for Business & Finance Certificate Program is designed specifically for non-technical roles, so no coding or advanced data skills are required.

Over 8 weeks, you’ll learn directly from Columbia Business School faculty and Wall Street Prep instructors who train teams at the world’s top firms, including:

Earn a certificate from a top business school and gain the practical AI skills to move your career forward.

Enroll by Oct. 13 to get $200 off tuition + use code CERT300 for an additional $300 off.

The program starts November 10.

Enroll Today