Introduction
In 2024, 58% of finance teams were already using AI. Now in 2025, finance leaders are asking which are the fastest AI tools for scenario modeling, smarter variance analysis, and forecasts that adapt to changing business conditions?
Traditional forecasting using spreadsheets cannot compete with today's market volatility. Modern AI financial forecasting tools do much more than automate calculations. They use machine learning (ML) to identify patterns humans miss and highlight anomalies before they affect results. Natural language processing (NLP) replies to questions from CFOs and finance leaders with actionable insights.
In this buyer's guide, we explore the top 11 AI-powered financial forecasting tools available in 2025. We’ll also compare their AI capabilities and discuss how to pick the right platform for your finance team’s needs.
Best AI financial forecasting tools in 2025 at a glance
Drivetrain: An AI-native planning platform built for agility, helping finance teams of fast-growing B2B companies move from static models to connected, insight-driven forecasting.
Anaplan: Enterprise-grade connected planning software with ML forecasting engines and AI-powered scenario optimization for complex organization needs.
Pigment: A modern business planning tool with strong collaboration features and AI-powered scenario modeling.
Mosaic: An AI-driven strategic finance platform designed for real-time forecasting and variance analysis.
Planful: A well-established FP&A solution that now integrates AI for faster modeling and smarter forecasting.
Adaptive (Workday Adaptive Planning): A proven cloud-based planning tool enhanced with AI for predictive analytics and scenario planning.
Cube: A finance-friendly platform that blends spreadsheets with AI forecasting to deliver flexible, accessible insights.
Datarails: Excel-native FP&A software that layers AI on top of spreadsheets for automated forecasting and anomaly detection.
Vena: A complete planning platform combining process automation with AI-enabled forecasting and reporting.
Jedox: A scalable enterprise performance management tool with AI for predictive forecasting and integrated planning.
Prophix: A corporate performance management solution that leverages AI to streamline financial forecasting and reduce manual effort.
| Tool | Best for | Key AI capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| Drivetrain | Mid-market to enterprise businesses | • AI Analyst (conversational interface to surface insights) • AI model generator for automated financial model creation • AI Anomaly detection across revenue, spend, and headcount • AI Transforms (natural-language data transformation) • AI BvA (write board-level commentary explaining key variances) |
| Anaplan | Enterprise businesses | • PlanIQ (ML forecasting engine) • CoPlanner (conversational AI assistant) • Predictive Insights • Optimizer for scenario optimization |
| Pigment | Enterprise businesses | • Planner Agent (next-step recommendations) • Modeler Agent (formula writing, model optimization) • Analyst Agent (trend detection, narrated insights) |
| Mosaic | SMB to Mid-market businesses | • Automated Insights with NLP prompts • Automated BvA analysis |
| Planful | Mid-market businesses | • Planful Projections Forecasting Engine (ensemble modeling) • Planful Signals for anomaly detection • Conversational AI interface for natural-language insights |
| Cube | SMB to Mid-market businesses | • Conversational agents to answer questions • Automated analysis to spot key variances • Smart forecasting • Intelligent mapping of data |
| Workday Adaptive Planning | Enterprise businesses | • AI forecasting and scenario modeling • AI-driven planning assistant (conversational interface) • Anomaly detection for revenue and expenses |
| Datarails | SMB to Mid-market businesses (spreadsheet-native) | • Chat (conversational assistant) • Insights (automated reports) • Storyboards (narrative presentations) |
| Vena | Mid-market businesses (spreadsheet-native) | • Conversational AI assistant for Excel and Teams • Automated report generation from simple prompts • Built-in financial analysis to flag trends and anomalies • Learns from user input to improve personalization |
| Jedox | Mid-market to enterprise businesses | • NLP to explore complex datasets and answer questions about the product • Prebuilt templates for various planning scenarios |
| Prophix | Mid-market businesses | • Automatically generate summaries of visual data representations • Leverage historical data and AI algorithms to project future financial outcomes • NLP based conversational AI assistant |
Drivetrain
Our top pick for AI financial forecasting software to add to your list is Drivetrain. Purpose-built for modern finance teams, Drivetrain connects seamlessly with 800+ native integrations, from CRM and ERP to HRIS and billing, so you never waste time on manual data consolidation. Your reports and forecasts update automatically, giving you a real-time view of revenue, expenses, headcount, cash flow, and more.
With Drive AI, Drivetrain’s intelligence layer, finance teams can go beyond automation. From AI-powered forecasting and model generation to anomaly detection and natural language insights, Drivetrain helps you answer business-critical questions in seconds and adapt your plans with confidence.
AI Transforms: Instantly processes complex datasets and makes them forecast-ready, eliminating hours of manual data prep. Finance teams can shift focus from wrangling spreadsheets to analyzing insights, improving both reporting speed and forecasting accuracy.
AI Model Generator: Creates a first-cut forecast in seconds using historical patterns across key drivers. Teams receive a flexible baseline forecast that they can quickly refine with assumptions such as churn, pricing shifts, or changes in headcount.
AI Analyst: A conversational partner for forecasting for finance teams. You can ask questions like, “What’s next quarter’s ARR?” or “How does a 2% churn increase impact revenue?” The Analyst replies with narrative insights and supporting charts for instant clarity.
AI Alerts: Continuously tracks forecast health by flagging anomalies, broken assumptions, or variances before they skew results. The AI system alerts finance teams via the user’s product inbox, Slack, and email so that they can act quickly to maintain their rolling forecast accuracy.
AI BvA: Automates budget vs. actual (BvA) comparisons, generating plain-language commentary that explains variances for executives and boards and enables faster reporting and decision-making.
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Anaplan Intelligence enhances enterprise forecasting with ML-driven projections, collaboration tools, and optimization engines. Its modules improve forecast accuracy by combining statistical methods with scenario optimization and explainable insights. Anaplan Intelligence comprises four integrated AI products: Coplanner, Optimizer, Predictive Insights, and PlanIQ.
CoPlanner: Uses large language models (LLMs) to deliver context-aware insights through natural language queries. Finance teams can query across multiple models simultaneously, uncovering interrelated drivers that shape forecasts and improving their understanding of business dynamics.
Optimizer: Performs scenario planning and analysis by applying mathematical optimization techniques. Finance teams can specify objectives and constraints, and the optimizer will recommend the best outcomes. While not AI per se, this provides rigor for constraint-based planning.
Predictive Insights & PlanIQ: Employs ML to detect patterns in connected datasets, improving forecast precision. Predictive Insights helps spot trends and predict outcomes, while PlanIQ makes it easy to create no-code forecasts using past data. This makes advanced forecasting more accessible to non-technical users.
Pigment AI supports enterprise-scale forecasting where thousands of metrics and hierarchies are in constant flux. Its intelligent agents guide teams through updates, optimize model performance, and surface narrated insights. It keeps rolling projections accurate, explainable, and actionable at scale.
Planner Agent: Proposes structured next steps based on business goals and market conditions. Whether refining weekly forecasts or running stress tests, the Planner Agent automates much of the work involved, ensuring teams stay focused on decisions rather than mechanics.
Modeler Agent: Keeps driver-based models reliable by automating formula updates and structural improvements. As the business evolves, it continuously adapts the model framework, preserving accuracy without requiring manual recalibration.
Analyst agent: Spots emerging trends and seasonality shifts, then translates them into plain-language commentary. Executives gain fast, narrative explanations of forecast adjustments, making insights easier to communicate across leadership teams.
Arc by Mosaic uses NLP to make financial data more accessible. Finance teams can ask questions in conversational language, such as “What drove Q2 revenue variance?” and Arc interprets, analyzes, and delivers accurate, actionable insights directly from the system.
Automated insights: Arc turns complicated forecast changes and data shifts into simple, plain-English explanations. This makes it easy for finance leaders to share business updates with stakeholders without technical jargon.
Automated BvA analysis: Automatically compares forecasts against actuals, identifies variance drivers, and recommends updated assumptions. These adjustments automatically roll into the next forecast, making financial models more accurate and responsive.
Planful simplifies recurring forecast cycles for mid-market finance teams. It uses historical data to create reliable baselines, monitors inputs and outputs for potential issues, and makes exploring different scenarios easy. The result is a reliable rolling forecast that updates quickly and is easy for executives to understand.
Projections: Automatically builds baseline forecasts from historical trends, then suggests adjustments to assumptions. Finance teams can instantly see the impact of changes like pricing shifts or churn, which makes scenario planning faster and more reliable.
Signals: Continuously tracks forecast health, flagging outliers, broken assumptions, or unusual data refreshes before they skew results. This early detection helps teams course-correct in time to keep planning cycles accurate.
Help Assistant: Enables natural language queries on forecasts, such as “What if churn increases by 3%?” The assistant runs the scenario instantly, producing updated projections with clear narrative explanations for finance leaders.
Workday’s Illuminate™ engine powers predictive and conversational forecasting for enterprise finance teams. Its AI allows users to track headcount, financial metrics, and risks dynamically with built-in scenario planning and impact analysis.
Intelligent planning: Uses ML to blend internal company data with external sources, such as market shifts, labor costs, and inflation rates, to produce adaptive, accurate forecasts.
Assistant: Supports natural-language queries like “What’s forecasted headcount next quarter?” or “How will a tariff hike affect margins?” to explore scenarios. Teams can query forecasts to receive instant charts, actionable insights, and plain-language recommendations.
Anomaly detection: Integrated AI flags outliers and inconsistencies early, ensuring data quality across planning cycles. Illuminate’s automated workflows help users respond to real-time changes, maintaining report integrity and enabling immediate corrective action.
Cube makes AI forecasting easy for SMB and mid-market finance teams. The platform is built on top of Excel, and for businesses that still rely on spreadsheets for their forecasting, it brings AI into the daily workflow, blending conversational agents with automated forecasting. Think Excel-like speed but with AI-driven updates that keep your rolling plans on track across segments and time periods.
Forecasting agent: Uses AI to automatically build baseline forecasts for revenue, expenses, and seasonality from historical data. Finance teams can then tweak assumptions and run what-if scenarios dynamically, speeding up planning without losing flexibility.
Conversational agent: Lets users ask questions in plain English, like “Show forecasted ARR by segment” or “Why did revenue dip in Q4?”. The agent returns immediate, data-backed answers without building custom reports or dashboards.
Analysis agent: Functions as an always-on analyst by detecting variances between forecasts and actuals. It highlights the underlying drivers, enabling finance teams to quickly explain and act on unexpected shifts.
Mapping agent: Converts plain-language logic into structured forecasting rules. For example, “Group all EMEA sales under International Revenue” is applied automatically. It automates model mapping and standardizes assumptions across business segments.
Genius by Datarails turns static financial data into dynamic and actionable insights directly within Excel. AI-driven automation and real-time intelligence improve strategic forecasting for finance teams. Teams can use familiar tools while benefiting from advanced analytics and AI, without the need for retraining or migration.
Insights: Genius continuously analyzes forecasts, surfacing emerging trends and risks, and flagging unexpected variances such as revenue dips or cost spikes. It allows rapid validation and adjustment of assumptions, keeping forecasts accurate and up-to-date.
Storyboards: Converts forecast outputs into ready-to-share executive decks with AI-generated commentary and visualizations. Finance teams can instantly communicate forecast drivers, changes, and scenarios, saving hours of slide-building and accelerating decision-making cycles.
Chats: Genius provides a conversational AI assistant that responds to plain-language forecasting queries. Ask questions like “What’s next quarter’s projected revenue?” or “How does our forecast compare to the budget?” and receive immediate, context-rich responses based on live company data.
Vena
Vena Copilot makes forecasting easier by using agentic AI to turn your natural-language prompts into actionable plans and insights. The platform is tightly integrated with Excel and backed by enterprise-level security. With Vena, you can quickly create projections, run scenario simulations, and analyze variances.
Planning agent: Finance teams can run driver-based planning and predictive forecasting directly in Excel through a chat interface. Vena Copilot generates accurate plans informed by historical company data and external trends, enabling faster planning cycles without abandoning familiar workflows.
Analytics agent: Performs variance analysis, trend detection, and scenario simulations in real time. By surfacing the key drivers behind forecast shifts, it helps finance leaders understand what’s changing and why, improving transparency and confidence in decision-making.
Reporting agent: Automates the creation of forecast reports with natural-language prompts. Teams receive up-to-date Excel reports that are formatted and ready to share with executives and stakeholders. These eliminate manual reporting work and ensure consistency across reviews.
Jedox
JedoxAI automates routine tasks and makes it easier for teams to work with models. With features like predictive forecasting, natural-language queries, and smart pattern detection, FP&A teams are able to focus on quick, accurate, and insight-driven scenario planning.
AIssisted™ Planning Wizards: Offers AI-guided setup for common forecasting use cases such as revenue, cash flow, demand, and churn. The intuitive and click-through wizards generate transparent, driver-based forecasts with upper and lower bounds, while enabling easy scenario comparisons for strategic planning.
JedoxAI: Summarizes complex forecast data and KPI trends through NLP. Finance teams can ask questions like “Show rolling forecast beyond budget” to get clear, intuitive insights without navigating multiple models or reports.
AI Search: Users can type queries like “How do I create a quarterly forecast report?” and receive step-by-step instructions. The platform’s smart search assistant offers structured answers to workflow questions. It helps lower the barrier to building and refining forecasting processes.
Prophix
Prophix One Intelligence brings agility and clarity to financial forecasting with AI-driven predictive modeling, conversational insights, and real-time flexibility. By generating rolling forecasts, explaining numbers in plain language, and surfacing key drivers, it helps finance teams forecast faster, adapt to change, and collaborate more effectively.
Prophix Copilot: A natural language assistant that provides instant narrative insights in response to questions like “Why did forecasted revenue drop this month?” Prophix Copilot identifies key drivers and emerging trends directly within forecast reports, simplifying complex data interpretation.
Predictive forecasting: Analyzes historical data patterns and live data to automatically generate smart AI-driven forecasts. Finance teams can use these projections to model scenarios, anticipate outcomes, and adapt quickly to changing business conditions.
Chart insights: Automatically translates charts, variances, and model outputs into clear commentary. For example, it reads the chart as “Gross margin dropped due to higher APAC costs,” to speed up communication by putting data into words everyone can understand.
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Features to look for in an AI financial forecasting tool
The right AI forecasting tool is not only about speed—it should also be easy to use, and must give you accurate results to be trustworthy.
The best platforms automate baseline forecasts, integrate directly with all the core business systems, such as your ERP, CRM, and HRIS, and allow finance teams to query data in plain English. They also explain variances, support rolling forecasts, and give confidence through transparent AI outputs.
Look for features that empower scenario planning, simplify workflows, and build team-wide trust in the forecasts.
Native integrations
AI forecasting is only as good as the data it’s based on. Native integrations with systems like ERP, CRM, HRIS, and billing allow forecasts to access data systems directly, eliminating the need for manual imports or spreadsheets. This removes silos, reduces reconciliation errors, and saves countless hours spent on data wrangling. Tools with strong integrations allow for real-time updates from revenue, expenses, headcount, and cash flow, so FP&A teams are running accurate, always-on forecasts with minimal friction.
ML-powered forecasting
ML takes financial forecasting beyond static models by automatically detecting trends, seasonal patterns, and anomalies in historical data. Instead of manually adjusting assumptions, ML-powered tools learn from past patterns and generate predictive baselines for future periods. This allows finance teams to anticipate risks, validate intuition with data, and focus on value-added scenario planning for smarter forecasts that adapt quickly when business conditions change.
Conversational assistants and the ability to query data in plain English
Forecasting shouldn’t require SQL queries or model deep-dives. With conversational assistants, finance teams can simply ask their questions and instantly receive clear explanations or charts. Natural language querying reduces the barrier for non-technical users, speeds up analysis, and enables quick ad-hoc insights. This democratizes forecasting across the business, making finance more collaborative and insights more accessible.
Collaborative, cloud-native forecasting environment
Finance teams need flexible forecasting platforms with cloud-native tools that let stakeholders like finance, sales, and operations work together in real time on the same model. No more emailing versions or fixing conflicting spreadsheets. Teams get one shared source of truth with access controls and audit trails, fostering collaboration, reducing delays, and ensuring decisions are based on the latest forecast.
Enterprise-grade security
Financial forecasts have sensitive data like revenue projections, headcount plans, and strategic investments, making enterprise-grade security essential. The best tools meet standards like SOC 2, GDPR, and ISO 27001, with features such as role-based access controls, SSO, and encryption. These features safeguard data, block unauthorized access, and ensure CFOs can trust that their forecasts are secure.
Explainable AI
Trust is essential when using AI to shape financial forecasts. Explainable AI brings transparency by showing the factors behind predictions, confidence intervals, and variance explanations. This turns forecasts from black-box outputs into insights finance leaders can question and validate. With explainable AI, CFOs can confidently share forecasts with executives, boards, and investors, knowing every number has a clear story.
Drivetrain vs. the field
Unlike legacy solutions whose underlying architecture was not really designed for AI, Drivetrain is an AI-native FP&A software designed from the ground up with AI as a foundational element of its architecture and capabilities. Mid-market and enterprise finance teams rely on Drivetrain’s AI-native features across integrations, forecasting, and reporting to forecast faster, collaborate smarter, and make more confident decisions.
800+ Integrations to Unify Your Business Data
Your forecasts are only as good as the data fueling them. Drivetrain offers 800+ native integrations across ERP, CRM, HRIS, and billing systems, to consolidate data from your entire financial ecosystem into one place for financial forecasting. AI automatically maps and harmonizes disparate and custom fields into a unified structure that gets smarter with every cycle.
Supports several advanced AI capabilities
Drivetrain’s AI goes beyond automation to enhance every step of FP&A. Teams can spot anomalies early, generate forecasts in seconds from historical data, and use natural language prompts instead of complex formulas. Variance commentary is auto-generated, turning numbers into insights effortlessly. Your teams benefit from faster closes, cleaner forecasts, and get more time for planning and strategy.
Faster time to value
Traditional forecasting tools take months to implement and even longer to deliver ROI. With Drivetrain’s AI-first architecture and quick onboarding, finance teams can go live in weeks. Customers typically achieve ROI within just six months, the fastest in the category, so finance leaders see results within the same planning cycle. Drivetrain also consistently tops G2 ratings for usability, implementation, and customer satisfaction.
Built to boost cross-functional collaboration
Drivetrain is designed to keep finance in control while empowering the business to contribute. Role-based access ensures sensitive financial data stays protected, while department leaders get tailored views to input their forecasts, run reports, and explore dashboards without bottlenecks. Built-in workflows, commentary, and a universal conversational assistant keep collaboration transparent and efficient. Everyone stays aligned, the process stays on track, and finance teams don’t have to watchdog every update.
Uncompromising security and full transparency
Security and trust are non-negotiable for Drivetrain. The platform meets the highest compliance standards, including SOC 1 Type II, SOC 2 Type II, ISO, and GDPR certifications. Advanced controls like data masking and dimensional-level access ensure that sensitive information is safeguarded. Every AI-generated response includes its source, and users can drill down into calculations to validate results. This combination of security, auditability, and explainability means finance teams can adopt AI confidently without sacrificing oversight
FAQs
Choose AI financial forecasting tools that are easy to integrate, offer clear insights, and support teamwork. When assessing AI-powered forecasting tools, keep an eye out for:
- Native integrations that eliminate manual reconciliation, reduce errors, and give finance teams a single source of truth for decision-making.
- ML-powered forecasting to reduce time spent on manual modeling and support scenario planning and strategic analysis.
- Conversational assistants and the ability to query data in plain English to get instant, data-backed answers.
- Collaborative, cloud-native forecasting environment to keep processes efficient and transparent.
- Enterprise-grade security to keep forecasting accurate, secure, and compliant.
- Explainable AI to validate assumptions, build trust with stakeholders, and confidently use AI-driven insights.
Together, these features enable faster, more accurate forecasts while making advanced capabilities accessible across the business.
The AI tools most suited for financial forecasting in enterprises are:
- Drivetrain
- Pigment
- Anaplan
- Adaptive
- Jedox
These platforms provide powerful tools for predictive analytics, scenario modeling, and enterprise-level security, giving finance teams the flexibility and control to make smarter, faster decisions.
No, AI forecasting tools are helpful, but they are no match for human judgment. They’re ideal for automating tasks like creating forecasts, spotting anomalies, and running what-if scenarios to aid decision-making. These tools leverage AI to quickly process data, identify patterns, and provide insights, but they cannot account for business context, strategy changes, leadership shifts, or market sentiment. The best results come from combining AI forecasts with the expertise of finance leaders.
AI forecasting platforms deliver ROI by improving forecast accuracy, reducing errors, and shortening planning cycles. By automating data prep and variance analysis, they free up finance teams’ time for value-added work. Rolling forecasts update automatically with live data, enabling faster scenario planning and sharper capital allocation. Many mid-market and enterprise companies see measurable ROI within the same planning cycle, often in just six months with AI-powered FP&A software like Drivetrain.
Explainable AI in forecasting means the platform not only produces projections but also clarifies which drivers shaped them. Instead of black-box outputs, teams see whether revenue shifts came from churn, pipeline changes, or rising costs. This transparency builds trust with executives and boards, makes assumptions easier to validate, and ensures forecasts remain auditable. In practice, explainable AI turns complex algorithms into clear, defensible insights that support confident business decisions.
With Drive AI, Drivetrain brings advanced AI capabilities to FP&A. AI Transforms rapidly converts raw data into insights ready to forecast. AI Model Generator creates accurate forecasts based on historical trends, AI Analyst answers your questions with sharp insights and charts, AI Alerts help catch issues early so forecasts stay on track, and AI BvA automates budget vs. actual reporting. All these tools help in financial forecasting at speed and with clarity.
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