A comp practitioner's workflow for using AI with Excel in compensation analysis — data security, audit trails, formula QC, reproducibility, and when not to use AI.

Pay equity analysis tools from vendors can cost thousands per year. I built one for free in 8 hours using vibe coding — without any programming experience. The tool runs multiple linear regression, calculates adjusted pay gaps across gender and race, identifies underpaid employees, and generates executive-ready PDF reports. This case study covers the full journey from product requirements document to live deployment, including the bugs, the fixes, and lessons learned for HR professionals curious about AI-assisted development.

This post is about a framework I use to build their own analytical tools and dashboards using AI-driven “vibe coding.” I try to explain my fellow HR pros how to try and transform traditional workflows into applications, instead of using Excel or other MS Office tools.