Many businesses avoid budgeting because it feels complex, time-consuming, or intimidating.

In this episode of Weeks Ahead AI, the team walks through how business owners can use AI to build a complete annual budget using historical financials, without starting from a blank spreadsheet.

Throughout the episode, the team highlights why Claude performed best for this specific task, particularly when it comes to financial analysis, spreadsheet structure, and handling assumptions, while still acknowledging that different AI models excel at different jobs.

In This Episode

• Why many businesses still avoid annual budgeting
• Using Claude AI to turn past P&Ls into a working budget
• Why some AI models perform better at financial analysis
• Applying growth assumptions and seasonality
• Reviewing and correcting AI-generated budgets
• Running hiring and growth scenarios in real time

Episode Timeline

00:00 – Why budgeting gets delayed or skipped
Common reasons business owners avoid the process.

03:00 – Why January is not too late
Using last year’s numbers to move forward.

06:30 – Uploading historical financials into AI
How much data you actually need.

09:00 – Choosing the right AI for the job
Why Claude stood out for financial modeling.

12:30 – Building a full annual budget
Revenue, expenses, and staffing generated automatically.

15:00 – Monthly views, seasonality, and assumptions
How AI applies real-world business patterns.

18:00 – Reviewing assumptions and fixing errors
Why human oversight still matters.

21:00 – Scenario planning
Testing hires, marketing spend, and growth decisions.

25:30 – Why AI budgeting works now
How recent improvements changed what is possible.

29:00 – Managing multiple AI tools
The downside of subscription sprawl.

32:00 – Final takeaways
How to apply this approach in your business.

Tools and Resources Mentioned

• Claude for financial modeling and spreadsheet work
• Wispr Flow for voice-to-text prompting
• Excel for reviewing and adjusting budgets

If you have been putting off building a budget, this episode shows how AI can help you get it done faster and with more clarity. Subscribe to Weeks Ahead AI for practical, real-world AI use cases.

Creating presentations used to take hours. Now you can talk for a few minutes, grab a transcript, and use Gamma to instantly build a clean, organized slide deck. In this episode of Weeks Ahead AI, Brad and Mitch walk through a real example in real time, showing how Gamma restructures messy conversations into a polished ten page presentation that can be exported to Google Slides, PowerPoint, Canva, or PDF.

They also explain practical tricks like using dashes to control slide grouping, how Gamma reorganizes content for clarity, and why this is one of the best low risk, high reward entry points for anyone using AI in their workflow.

In This Episode

• Live walkthrough of building a ten page deck in seconds with Gamma
• How transcripts from Plot or an iPhone recording can become presentations
• Why Gamma reorganizes your conversation into a clean narrative
• Exporting to PowerPoint, Google Slides, Canva, and PDF
• How to prepare board decks, proposals, and SOP slides in a fraction of the usual time
• Why presentation building is one of the easiest wins in AI adoption

Timestamps

00:00
Intro to Gamma and why Brad and Mitch use it for fast presentations

02:00
Turning a nine minute Relay Hub conversation into a ten page slide deck

04:50
How Gamma reorganizes raw conversation into a strong narrative flow

06:30
Key features like multimodal support, images, and customizable cards

08:15
Exporting the deck into Google Slides or PowerPoint for final edits

10:00
How to structure board decks by marking slide breaks in your transcript

12:45
Other AI tools like Lucidchart that use transcripts for diagrams and SOPs

14:30
Final thoughts and why this is a powerful time saver for any team

Links and Resources

Gamma: gamma.app
Plaud: Plaud Voice Recorder
Relay Hub Episode

Try taking a short voice memo, transcribing it, and dropping it into Gamma. Watch it turn into a complete presentation in seconds. Share your results with us at weeksahead.ai.

Most blue collar small businesses already sit on a gold mine of data from sensors, machines, and equipment, but barely use it. In this episode of Weeks Ahead AI, Brad, Terry, and Mitch bring back Josh Knutson, founder of Lium AI, to explain how AI can turn messy physical data into clear decisions for manufacturers, plants, and operators who live in the real world, not in spreadsheets.

In This Episode

• How a former therapist became a tech founder solving real world problems
• What it means to “ask your instruments” and talk to plant data in plain English
• Real use cases from astrophysics, oil and gas, satellites, and manufacturing
• How AI can boost throughput, quality, and food safety
• Why compute and power matter, and how smaller models change the future
• Practical steps for blue collar small businesses that want to start using AI

Timestamps

00:00 Why Josh is back and why physical world AI matters
02:10 From therapist to tech founder and the creation of Lium
04:40 Raising capital and building an AI startup around huge datasets
06:30 “Ask your instruments” explained in simple terms
07:45 Astrophysics example where months of work drop to 75 seconds
11:55 Oil, gas, and geothermal insights hidden in existing data
13:40 Why traditional AI tools choke on satellite and sensor data
15:55 Real world routing and decision making using weather and soil data
18:15 Why small and midsize manufacturers need this tech too
18:40 Extrusion and pet food manufacturing as a clear example
20:15 Point at your data, ask a question, get a recommendation
21:55 The future of autonomous agents tuning equipment in real time
25:55 Compute, power limitations, and the push for smaller models
29:25 Data centers, generators, and geothermal possibilities
31:00 CNBC predictions and where to learn more about Lium AI