On the other you have a non-technical executive who's got his head round Claude Code and can run e.g. Python locally.
I helped one recently almost one-shot converting a 30 sheet mind numbingly complicated Excel financial model to Python with Claude Code.
Once the model is in Python, you effectively have a data science team in your pocket with Claude Code. You can easily run Monte Carlo simulations, pull external data sources as inputs, build web dashboards and have Claude Code work with you to really integrate weaknesses in your model (or business). It's a pretty magical experience watching someone realise they have so much power at their fingertips, without having to grind away for hours/days in Excel.
I've a reasonably intense math background corrupted by application to geophysics and implementing real world numerical applications.
To be fair, this statement alone:
* 30 sheet mind numbingly complicated Excel financial model
makes my skin crawl and invokes a flight reflex.
Still, I'll concede that a Claude Code conversion to Python of a 30 sheet Excel financial model is unlikely to be significantly worse than the original.
They usually happen because some new and exciting line of business is started by a small team as a POC. Those teams don't get full technology backing, it would slow down the early iteration and cost a lot of money for an idea that may not be lucrative. Eventually they make a lot of money and by then risk controls are basically requiring them to document every single change they make in excel. This eventually sucks enough that they complain and get a tech team to convert the spreadsheet.
My experience being they are an exception rather than the rule and many more businesses have sheets that tend further toward Heath Robinson than would be admitted in public.