🤖 What ChatGPT Still Doesn’t Do Well (Yet) — Especially in Finance, Google Sheets, and Real-World Scenarios

Published May 26, 2025 by AI Mom Lab

AI is changing the way we budget, invest, and optimize our financial lives. But here’s the honest truth from someone who uses it daily for spreadsheets, credit-building, and content:

ChatGPT is helpful — but it also hallucinates, forgets, and flat-out fumbles when things get technical or visual.

If you’ve ever thought:
“Wait… that formula looks wrong,” or
“This answer sounds confident but makes zero sense…”
You’re not alone.

Let’s talk about the real limits of ChatGPT — especially in finance tasks, Google Sheets, and image-based analysis — with real examples I’ve personally run into.

😵 1. It Hallucinates Financial Logic and Formulas

What’s “Hallucination”? It means ChatGPT generates info that sounds right — but is factually wrong.

It included mortgage principal as cash flow in a CoC return formula.
Invented appreciation numbers I never gave it.
Confidently listed invalid tax deductions for my Schedule C.

Always double-check AI-generated math and legal advice.

📊 2. It Breaks in Google Sheets When Logic Gets Complex

Works great for IFs, SUMIFs, and small templates. But it fails on:

Multi-tab rental investment analysis
Cap rate calculators with dependencies
Dynamic VLOOKUPs with logic layers

Example: I built a deal analyzer. It got the math wrong on cash-on-cash return and didn’t track amortization properly.

📷 3. It Can’t Handle Blurry Screenshots or Handwriting

Photos of receipts fail 9/10 times
Screenshots of bank apps misread balances
Hand-filled budget templates often get ignored

Tip: Use native screenshots with typed text and no shadows.

🔁 4. It Doesn’t Think Like a Spreadsheet (Yet)

It overwrites rather than iterates
It forgets variables in multi-step logic
It needs full context re-pasted for accurate comparisons

⚙️ 5. It Doesn’t Integrate Natively with Real-Time Tools

No, it can’t yet connect directly to:

Your bank account or credit card
Google Sheets dynamically (unless using a script)
QuickBooks, Mint, TurboTax, or YNAB

You’ll need to use Zapier, APIs, or manual exports to link live financial data.

👩‍💻 6. It’s Not Great with Real Photos or Your Face

DALL·E and other built-in image tools can’t yet:

Render consistent likeness of a person
Match brand colors perfectly with photos
Stylize actual photos with overlay or facial expressions

Tools like Canva, MidJourney, and Runway ML still do this better.

✅ What You Can Still Rely On

Drafting financial documents or templates
Explaining budgeting or credit terms
Writing email scripts or automating simple tasks

🎥 Want to See These Mistakes (and Fixes) in Action?

📺 Subscribe to AI Mom Lab on YouTube

🗨️ Then comment on my latest video:

“Show the biggest mistakes ChatGPT makes with budgets + spreadsheets!”

I’ll make a walkthrough showing real fixes and smarter workflows.

📥 Free Gift: ChatGPT Prompt Pack for Finance + Sheets

👉 Drop your email here to get:

10 reliable prompts for financial automation
Google Sheets formulas that won’t break
Prompt engineering tricks to avoid hallucinations

#ChatGPTMistakes #FinanceWithAI #BudgetingFails #SmartMoneyMoves #AIProductivity #AIMomLab #GoogleSheetsAI #RealEstateWithAI #CreditScoreAI

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