AI Value · Comparison

Comparing AI Initiatives Side by Side: Why Spreadsheets Fall Short

Published 22 September 2026 · 6 min read · By the Intlectify team, Curiosbot Digital S.L.

Ask most teams how they compare AI initiatives today, and the honest answer is "a spreadsheet someone maintains." It's not a bad instinct — a spreadsheet is flexible and everyone can open one — but it breaks down in three predictable ways once more than two or three ideas are on the table.

Where spreadsheets break down

Formulas drift apart

Row 4's payback formula quietly diverges from row 11's after someone "just fixes one thing" under deadline pressure. Nobody notices until the totals don't add up, and by then nobody fully trusts the sheet.

Assumptions hide in cells

A discount rate or an hourly cost gets typed into a cell with no note explaining where it came from. Six months later, nobody — including whoever typed it — can say if it's still right.

There's no side-by-side view built for the decision

Spreadsheets are built for rows and columns, not for the specific question a prioritisation meeting actually needs answered: "of these three, which should we start first, and why?" Getting there means someone manually building a summary slide from the raw sheet, which is one more place for the numbers to drift.

What a proper comparison needs

• The same formula, every time — no per-row drift, because the calculation lives in one place.
• Visible assumptions — every input labelled and editable, not buried in an unlabelled cell.
• A built-for-purpose side-by-side view — cost, gain, payback and priority score for two to four initiatives, laid out to answer "which one first," not just "here are some numbers."