PaceSetters: MESCIUS Powers AI-Powered Spreadsheets, Developer Tools, and Saving Time with SpreadJS

Jonathan Kersting of the Pittsburgh Technology Council interviews Chris Bannon of MESCIUS on TechVibe Pace Setters about the Pittsburgh-rooted company's evolution from ComponentOne to GrapeCity to MESCIUS and its mission of building developer tools—charts, data grids, spreadsheets, reporting, and document services—that "sell time" by accelerating application development. Bannon explains why spreadsheets remain central to business-critical decisions despite attempts to move away from them, and how AI assistants layered on spreadsheets can build pivot tables, analyze trends, and answer questions quickly without deep Excel expertise. He shares MESCIUS's work adding AI features to SpreadJS and using AI to generate reports, plus an MCP server that gives coding agents deep knowledge of MESCIUS APIs and best practices to speed development and improve results. The Pittsburgh Technology Council produces TechVibe to explore Pittsburgh's technology and innovation ecosystem.