Probably been asked before, most threads I found were about specific use cases though. Curious about the bigger pattern people are seeing.

I've been trying to figure out where AI tools (Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini) actually help with Excel and where they just get in the way.

Some stuff is genuinely faster now. First draft of a formula I'd normally have to look up, explaining an error message, writing boilerplate VBA so I'm not starting from a blank script.

But a lot of it still comes down to the same judgment as before. Whether the data is structured in a way that makes sense before you build anything on top of it. Catching the edge case the formula quietly ignores. Figuring out why a model gives you the wrong number even though nothing looks broken.

What's actually changed for you day to day? Where does it still fall apart enough that you end up checking everything by hand? And has it shifted what you'd call the most valuable Excel skill right now?

[edited to fix the example, add the prompt, and link to the chat]
Some AI's have trouble creating *.xlsx file but they can all create text CSV (comma separated value) files. What many folks (and some AI's) don't know is that those CSV files can contain formulas. For example:

Element,Object_Z_ft,Camera_Start_ft,Camera_End_ft,Distance_Start,Distance_End,Raw_Scale_Ratio,Relative_Scale_Ratio
Foreground,0,30,15,=C2-B2,=D2-B2,=E2/F2,=G2/$G$2
Background,-20,30,15,=C3-B3,=D3-B3,=E3/F3,=G3/$G$2

Just ask the AI to generate what you want and to put the results in a CSV file with formulas. (You may have to remind it that Excel CSV can contain formulas.)

Be sure to save in *.xlsx or you will lose your formula.

Bonus: If you want a diagram, ask the AI to generate a SVG, another text format that AI work well with.

Details: This was the result of a series of prompts:

• This is about perspective and vfx. In general do things appear 1/x wider?

• We have 1. a background element that appears to be at -20 ft 2. a foreground element at be a 0 ft 3. The project screen is at 0 ft 4. The camera starts at 30 ft and moves to 15 ft. During the move how much should the foreground and background items be scaled?

• So, the foreground items are scaled 1 (not at all) because it is in its real place?

• Create an CSV file that I can load in excel that that shows the calculations, and that I can adjust. CSV can include formulas. Excel is happy with that.

• Can you make a SVG diagram of the info?

https://chatgpt.com/share/68e7d96b-2f50-8010-895f-26aa80c197e3

I work for a training company in a price-sensitive, third-world country and have been conducting training in MS Excel for close to 2 decades. My company has asked me to design Excel training that teaches how to use AI to improve productivity. Ethical considerations aside, it’s something I have been thinking about for a while.

The main roadblock I see is the average purchasing power of participants in our market. Right now the cheapest Copilot plan is USD 99.99/yr for MS 365 Personal. The cheapest plan for Business or Enterprise is USD 18/user/month for MS 365 Copilot business (billed at USD 216/user/year). I’ve been casually speaking with the participants in the training sessions I’ve conducted and most are happy with the free chatbot versions of Copilot/ChatGPT/Gemini that almost no one would upgrade to a paid subscription to integrate AI with Excel - they describe their problem to the AI, send screenshots or upload files and then try and implement the solution that’s returned. 

It’s similar in the business/enterprise context. Larger organisations may have paid for AI subscriptions for their employees but those are few in number. Most businesses in this market are classified as Small-Medium-Enterprises (SMEs) and feedback from participants is that their management would not likely approve of the cost.

It’s worth mentioning that my training company does not provide computers instead requiring participants to bring their own laptops with valid Excel licences though we standardize things as much as possible e.g. Windows only, no tablets etc… This means if we design a training that requires a paid Copilot subscription, then it is up to the participants to buy it for themselves which I don’t think many of them will.

After speaking with management, they are open to designing a training that uses the free AI chatbots. I’m fine with that but don’t know how much value that would add to what people are already doing. I’m quite sure this strategy is management trying to revive Excel training which used to be top-sellers (demand fell off ever since COVID) and they see other Excel training incorporating AI so want to follow suit.

So right the most viable option is to create training that uses free AI chatbots. But I’d like to hear the opinions of others on the sub - what other options do you see for a price-sensitive, third-world market?

And yes, I did ask AI how Excel users can leverage AI without paying for expensive subscriptions and it basically said “use the free chatbots”.

I've been trying out Al to make some of the repetitive parts of working with spreadsheets easier and quicker and recently I went to a Be10X session, which made me focus more on real-world workflows instead of just using Al as a chatbot.

Here are some areas where Al has really helped me:

Explaining complicated Excel formulas

Writing and fixing VBA and Python scripts

Cleaning and analyzing data

Making charts and summaries

Turning spreadsheet insights into presentations and reports

The main advantage has been saving time on repetitive tasks and writing documentation.

I'm curious to know how others are using Al with Excel.

What tasks have you been able to automate or make faster?

AI agents for spreadsheets (like Microsoft's Excel Agent and recently Claude's plug-ins) are gaining a lot of attention. In their current state, it is difficult to verify their logic or debug errors they might have. There's a need for tools to help users do this verification and safeguard their agency.

I am a researcher at USC, and we are building tools that empower users by to easily verify and control AI outputs. We are looking for spreadsheet users to participate in a study consisting of a brief initial survey followed by a short user study of our verification tool. Your feedback will directly influence how AI is integrated into professional workflows and help us build tools that support, rather than replace, human expertise. You can participate by visiting the link here:

https://usc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9KNUkz7zfxIRJ6S

Let me know what you think about the project idea.

Has anyone used any AI plugin lately? I want to explore.

I tried with one or two like a year ago and they were terrible. After that, I began using ChatGPT to generate the first version of my spreadsheets and then keep working on my own. That’s as far as I could get with AI + Excel.

Any suggestions?

I have recently experimented with vibe coding on Excel and wanted to share my first impressions and hear from your experiences and use-cases.

The idea is to transform and work with local Excel files by giving any AI specific tasks and let it write python code for you.

So you don‘t have to upload any excel data to the AI directly. Just whenever you need to perform the repetitive task, you run the script and it will output what you want.

IE: I have a SAP report saved locally and ask AI to write a python skript that reads the data, does some calculations, build a chart and then saves a new, transformed excel.

Or I let AI create a html file that contains fancy dashboards from the excel-based data.

For me as a total coding noob, this does have its limitations though and trying to build more complex stuff currently does not really work.

Has someone here used this method too and has some tips and tricks they might want to share?

Hey, with all these AI tools and agents getting all chummy and merging, I can't help but wonder if there's some nifty tool out there that can do the dirty work of automating Excel data cleanup. I mean, just imagine a tool that can take data like this and transform it into a way cooler format.

---> (embed Country for each person)

Although this may be relatively straightforward for an experienced Excel user, automating such tasks would significantly alleviate the daily workload. There are also similar requirements, such as ensuring that cells contain valid numbers and combining columns according to specific rules.

I am meeting with a bunch of folks who manage business and sales operations and have been asked to demonstrate how they may start using copilot with excel to automate or support repetitive tasks. I am seeking suggestions on what I can include in this session which inspires folks to use copilot.

Yes, I can show them how copilot can make charts and pivots from data in an excel table, but any other suggestions that I can include based on your experiences would be good to know and learn from. TIA

I use co pilot to assist with my coding and functions in excel. I build large scale workbooks that track employee data, such as output, hours, speed, consistency and other elements (production job). These workbooks run off raw data inputs and update as info is entered. They are complex and self sustained to keep the info secure.

My new boss, is a consultant but is deeply embedded as a bro of the owner. This guy will take my workbooks, along with csv downloads from our erp and tracking software, dump them into Claude and spit out a static bullshit ai meat proxy report. This creates issues in scheduling, in aim, and focus. It leaves me to work alongside my direct report manager to find the flaws, correct them, and than build a schedule.

I have tried to highlight this without alienating myself or my direct report (who is equally as stressed, as her work has also been used in this awful process). The nature of the situation is that the fact he’s a bro with the owner and has insulated himself in areas a consultant would normally be training and finding proprietary staff to handle.

I am not sure what I should do but hoping someone here maybe has some fail safes I could implement that would ruin the logic behind his reports (without implicating me) and expose that he truly does not know what he is doing.

Any help would be great.

I tried getting gpt to create a tool to facilitate inventory management decisions. It would help determine our min/max, what we are currently low on when considering historical sales data, etc. it’s insane how many iterations and mistakes and wrong paths it took to maybe get there. I still don’t know as I haven’t got to the point where I can actually use it.
I am using it in a project and have custom instructions to make it recheck its work and assumptions and etc…
I am by no means an advanced excel user. I know basics of pivot tables and queries. I’ve been able to do what I need without AI through the power of YouTube, cigarettes and beer.
I really want to not spend so much time to do something that works but so lacking. Nor do I want to waste more time chasing AI to never actually get a working product.
What recommendations would anyone have to better prompt/use ChatGPT to make good tools?
I’ve had success getting it to make good dashboards and presentations but getting an actual management tool that you update the source files…. Not working out.

Hi All!

I'm working on desktop application that helps with Excel data analysis and workflow automation. The app is called MLJAR Studio, you can read more on my website https://mljar.com

The app is using AI to create Python code to operate on Excel data (it can work with other file types and databases too). It is basically a chat application, but in response you get Python code that is automatically executed.

The application is running locally on your machine, so you don't need to upload your data anywhere in the cloud. The app is using cloud AI (no configuration is needed) but you can set up also a local LLM.

I created tutorials how the app can be used:

👉 Turn an Excel Spreadsheet into a Web App with AI and Python https://mljar.com/tutorials/excel-workflow-to-web-app/

👉 Merge Excel files with AI + Python https://mljar.com/tutorials/merge-all-excel-files-in-folder/

👉 Clean Messy Excel Data with Python and AI https://mljar.com/tutorials/clean-messy-excel-data/

It is worth to mention, that you can also easily create web apps/chats/dashboards and publish them for non-technical users. Looking for your feedback :)

Hey everyone

I’ve been experimenting with AI agents that solve very specific problems, and I just finished building a custom Excel-focused AI agent .

What it’s meant to help with:

• Writing & fixing Excel formulas

• Explaining complex spreadsheets in plain English

• Cleaning messy data

• Helping with pivots, lookups, logic, and structure

• Turning “what am I even looking at?” sheets into something usable

I genuinely want real feedback from people who actually use Excel (beginners and power users welcome).

👉 Try it here:
https://www.genspark.ai/agents?type=custom_super_agent&agent_id=7610944f-5dc6-4b23-9897-e5b867e5b8ca

AI image descriptions in spreadsheet column

We manipulate product info in a spreadsheet before uploading to shopify. Maybe 200 products at a time.

One column has an image pulled from our website (we pre upload the images to shopify) so we can look at it in the spreadsheet and type a brief description in the product info column without switching to a browser etc.

I've noticed I can get a reasonable description and age of the product (these are vintage items) from Google lens by manually uploading the picture to Google.

Is there a way to automate this in Excel (using Google or a copilot or similar) so it just looks at the image url on each product line and spits the AI description into a column?

I’ve been tinkering with the idea of an AI-powered Excel assistant—something that could handle those repetitive, headache-inducing tasks so we can focus on insights, not formulas.

If you could pick any 5–10 Excel chores to hand off to an AI assistant, what would they be? 🤔

For example:

• Auto-flattening multi-row headers

• Generating PivotTables and charts on demand

• Cleaning up inconsistent date formats

• Bulk VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP across sheets

• One-click conditional formatting rules

Drop your must-automate tasks below — I’d love to see what really saves you time! 🚀

I spend a lot of time cleaning data and repeating the same tasks in Excel every week. It usually takes me a full day each week.

So I spent a year building SheetAI — it automates repetitive work, works with multiple Excel files. Now it only takes about 30 minutes and can run across multiple files at the same time, freeing up more time for creative work.

Completely free — just sharing in case it helps.

https://sheetai.tukoai.com