How to Use AI for Excel

You describe what you want in plain language — a formula, a cleaned-up dataset, a chart, a report — and AI handles the execution. No syntax memorising, no manual formatting. Most advanced Excel users already use it for exactly this.

Microsoft 365 Copilot, built directly into Excel. External tools like ChatGPT or Claude, used alongside Excel in a separate tab. Third-party AI add-ins from the Microsoft Marketplace (formula generators, data-cleaning assistants). Pick based on whether you want it inside the file or working alongside it.

Generates accurate formulas without you writing complex syntax, suggests and builds charts from your data, produces formatted reports with visualisations, explains errors like #VALUE! or #N/A in plain English, cleans and standardises messy data, and identifies patterns across large datasets. Requires Microsoft 365, OneDrive, and AutoSave to work.

Describe your need in a separate browser tab and copy-paste the result in, or upload the file and get a modified version back. Good for formula and macro generation, and — with a paid plan — deeper data analysis with actual code running behind the scenes. Never paste sensitive business data (revenue, client details, salaries) into a general-purpose chat tool.

Data cleaning (removing duplicates, fixing inconsistencies), automated charting, turning raw numbers into a formatted report, diagnosing formula errors automatically, matching similar values semantically ('Apple Inc.' = 'AAPL'), and asking plain-language questions directly against your data instead of writing formulas by hand.

Specify the exact columns and cell ranges involved. State the goal, not just the mechanics — say what outcome you want, not only what to calculate. Iterate: refine based on what comes back rather than expecting a perfect first pass. Verify AI-generated formulas against known values before trusting them at scale.

Save your file to OneDrive and enable AutoSave — most Copilot features won't work without it. Then try one real task: summarise a messy tab, clean a dataset, or build one chart from natural-language prompts. Confidence comes from doing it once, not reading about it.