S2 E7. Data Engineering Meets Excel: Building Explainable and Reliable Decision Models with River Solutions
The Data Playbook Podcast
<p>Kris Peeters sits down with Amaury Anciaux, founder of River Solutions, to tackle a painful reality for data leaders: <strong>critical decisions still depend on fragile Excel models</strong>.</p>
<p>They explore why Excel won’t disappear, how River turns spreadsheets into <strong>visual, explainable and reliable decision models</strong>, and what happens when you bring <strong>data quality checks, testing and documentation</strong> into the analyst workflow.</p>
<p>Topics include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Why 99% of models in organisations are still built in Excel</li>
<li>Silent errors, risk, and the real cost of debugging formulas</li>
<li>Visual flow-based modelling and model maps inside Excel</li>
<li>Built-in checks for missing data, duplicates and broken lookups</li>
<li>How AI copilots helped build River, and why AI won’t replace transparent models</li>
<li>The evolving role of analysts and managers in data-driven decisions</li>
</ul>
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<p><strong>Chapters: </strong></p>
<p>00:00 – Intro & episode setup00:45 – Amaury’s background & consulting career02:00 – The hidden reality of Excel decision models04:00 – Why “just get it out of Excel” doesn’t scale05:10 – What River Solutions does in Excel06:40 – Visual model maps for explainable models08:40 – Removing formulas & adding data quality checks10:50 – Why Excel errors are so risky for big decisions13:15 – Who River is for: analysts, Excel gurus & managers16:05 – Why Amaury started River now & building with Copilot19:00 – Will AI copilots replace River and Excel modelling?22:51 – How River works as an Excel add-in (UX & interactivity)26:25 – How River changes the analyst role (less debugging, more thinking)28:10 – Roadmap: community, cloud, AI & connecting to data warehouses31:14 – Biggest lesson learned: software is easy, change is hard</p>