Planner Assistant: Your Next Step in AI-Powered Planning

• What it is: Planful AI Planner Assistant is an AI-powered planning assistant embedded in Planful that forecasts, surfaces anomalies, and answers forward-looking questions in natural language.  Every answer is grounded in Planful models and actuals, not a generic AI model.
• Who it’s for: Finance teams, especially FP&A leaders and analysts, who need more accurate forecasting, real-time scenario exploration, and earlier anomaly detection without adding complexity to their workflows.
• Why it matters: Planner Assistant closes the gap between insight and action, so you can move from understanding what happened to exploring what’s next, in one conversation.

Your finance team has gotten faster at analyzing results, but turning that insight into a forecast or scenario is where things still slow down.

After the analysis is done, you still have to build the next forecast or scenario separately. That means reworking assumptions, pulling the right data together, and recreating the context you just had.

By the time you’re ready to act, the business has already moved forward.

Planner Assistant closes that gap, so you can move from insight to action without breaking your workflows.

We’re excited to introduce Planner Assistant, the next evolution of Planful AI. Planner Assistant brings together forecasting, scenario exploration, and anomaly detection into the same conversational experience your team already uses. Every answer is grounded in your Planful models and actuals, not a generic AI.

Planful’s vision is simple: We build AI that works the way finance works.

We’re building a suite of persona-based assistants that help you focus on higher-impact work. Analyst Assistant was the first step, helping you understand what happened and why. Planner Assistant takes the next step forward.

With Planner Assistant, you get a view into what’s likely to happen next and what it means for your plan. You can move from analysis to prediction to scenario exploration to planning within the same conversation.

This approach is grounded in trust and governance. Planner Assistant follows the same security and governance standards as Analyst Assistant:

• Your data is never used to train AI models
• You only see the data you are authorized to access
• Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest

You stay in control throughout the process.

Planner Assistant helps you turn insight into action more quickly and with less effort.

Here’s how it supports your team:

• Move from insight to action: Go from understanding what happened to exploring what’s next in one continuous experience without rebuilding models or switching tools.
• Get more from Planful AI: If you already use Planful’s AI solutions, Signals and Projections, Planner Assistant brings them into a single natural language experience so more of your team can access them.
• Forecast in a prompt: Ask a question instead of building a model. Scenario exploration that used to take hours happens in a single prompt.
• Catch issues before they become problems: Surface anomalies in your forecast early enough in the cycle to actually respond to them
• Stay in one workflow: Analyze and plan in the same interface, which helps you stay focused and reduces friction across your workflow.

You need speed, flexibility, and confidence when planning. Planner Assistant helps you get there without adding complexity or requiring a new workflow.

Instead of setting up models or navigating a separate forecasting tool, you can ask forward-looking questions and get fast, explainable answers, drawn directly from your data in Planful.

Here’s how the core capabilities come together:

Natural language forecasting

You can generate forecasts and projections using plain language.

You might ask:

• “Generate a projection of EBITDA for the next six months.”
• “What does my forecast look like for Q3 2026 OpEx by department?”

Planner Assistant translates your question into a projection using your existing Planful models, so your team can access forecasting without relying on manual setup or specialized expertise.

Explainable predictions

Planner Assistant generates forecasts alongside clear explanations of what’s driving the outcome, grounded in your actual financial data.

For example, you can ask planning questions like:

• “What’s driving the increase in my Q3 revenue projection?”
• “Explain the EBITDA forecast for the next six months.”

Forecasts leverage automated ML model selection, evaluating statistical and machine learning algorithms per dimension and selecting the model that minimizes forecast error based on your historical actuals.

Explainable anomaly detection

Planner Assistant surfaces anomalies flagged as deviations worth your attention, providing clear explanations to help you understand them before they escalate.

Signals work by evaluating your actuals against expected ranges across dimensions, flagging step changes, outliers, and trend breaks, and providing the context needed to act.

You can ask questions like:

• Highlight any major deviations in Net Sales for the 2027 forecast.
• Are monthly Operating Expenses abnormally high for any entity this year so far?

The result is earlier visibility into the numbers that are drifting, with enough context to actually do something about them.

Forecast exploration across dimensions

Planning requires a detailed view.

You can explore projections across departments, regions, cost centers, or any dimension in your Planful model. This makes it easier to understand what is driving changes and where to focus next.

You can ask questions like:

• “What does my forecast look like for Q3 2026 OpEx by department?”
• “Create a projection for CAPEX by Entity for this year.”

Variance-to-prediction analysis

You can compare where you are today with where you are expected to land.

Planner Assistant helps you understand how actuals or forecasts align with predicted outcomes, so you can identify gaps and adjust earlier with questions like:

• “Show me the variance between actuals and budget for operating expenses.”
• “What’s driving the variance between our current forecast and predicted actuals for IT spend?”

The result is an early-warning view of the numbers that are drifting away from what the data suggests, with enough context to course correct in-cycle instead of explaining the miss next quarter.

A unified analysis-to-planning experience

Planner Assistant works within the same Planful AI conversational experience you use for Analyst Assistant. You do not need to learn a new tool or switch between workflows.

When you ask a forward-looking question, Planner Assistant responds within the same conversation. You can move naturally from “what happened” to “what should we do next” without losing context.

That’s what continuous planning actually looks like in day-to-day work: analysis flowing into prediction, prediction flowing into scenario, scenario flowing into decision, all in one place.

Planner Assistant is read-only at launch by design. You can explore forecasts, scenarios, and signals freely, confident that nothing is being written back to your planning data. Write-back capabilities are on the roadmap.

Planner Assistant brings planning into your day-to-day workflow.

You can combine analysis, prediction, and scenario exploration in a single conversation, helping you make more confident decisions without adding new tools or processes.

Remember, Planner Assistant requires Analyst Assistant and Planful AI Signals and Projections. It is not available as a standalone product.

If you have Analyst today, adding Planner unlocks the power that combines Signals and Projections.

See how Planner Assistant can support your planning process.

Get a demo of Planful AI Planner Assistant today.

What is Planful’s Planner Assistant?

Planner Assistant is an AI financial planning assistant embedded in Planful. It helps you generate and explore forecasts, identify anomalies, and ask forward-looking questions using natural language within the Planful AI experience.

Does Planner Assistant require a separate interface?

No. Planner Assistant works within the same conversational interface you use for Analyst Assistant, so you can analyze and plan in the same place without switching tools or learning a new workflow.

What do I need to use Planner Assistant?

Planner Assistant requires Analyst Assistant and Signals & Projections. Planner Assistant is included for customers who have both.

Can Planner Assistant modify my financial data?

Currently, Planner Assistant is read-only. You can explore forecasts and scenarios without changing your data, giving you control to validate insights before taking action.

How does Planner Assistant ensure accuracy in forecasts?

Planner Assistant uses automated ML model selection, evaluating multiple statistical and machine learning algorithms against your historical actuals and selecting the best fit for each GL Combination. Because projections are built on your financial data inside Planful and not a generic model, results are more reliable, easier to interpret, and grounded in the patterns specific to your business.