Whether you are a beginner or an expert Excel user, navigating complex formulas, endless data cleaning, and time-consuming formatting can feel like a daunting task. Here is where Microsoft's AI-powered Copilot assistant comes into play. From generating formulas and showing insights in charts to highlighting interesting data, Copilot empowers you to work smarter, not harder. Continue reading to discover the most cutting-edge methods to leverage Copilot's features and elevate your Excel experience to the next level.
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What is Copilot in Microsoft Excel?
Before we explore Copilot in Microsoft Excel, let's have a word about the entire integration and why it matters for spreadsheet users.
Copilot essentially acts as your personal assistant in Excel, as it has a deep understanding of your spreadsheets just like you do. It can suggest formulas, reply to your questions, and even let you do more with a specific cell. For example, if you are dealing with a monthly expense database in Excel, simply ask Copilot to calculate and make a chart based on the data.
Note that Copilot doesn't have any magic wand in Excel. It accomplishes the same as you could with advanced Excel features and functions. The main advantage is that you don't need to dig into Excel menus and can use a single interface to get the job done. Needless to say, it's a boon for new Excel users who are less familiar with writing formulas.
Access Copilot in Microsoft Excel
First of all, Copilot in Microsoft Excel is available only on desktop versions. You can't access it on the Excel web version. As you may know, Excel's desktop apps require a Microsoft 365 subscription. The pricing starts at $7 per month for Microsoft 365 for Home.
Once you download Excel on Windows or Mac, it's time to purchase a Copilot Pro subscription to unlock access to the AI bot in Office apps, including Excel. It is priced at $20 per month.
Now, you can launch Microsoft Excel on Windows or Mac and find the Copilot button under the Home menu at the top. Let's check out some of its capabilities in action.
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5 Get insights from your data
Thanks to a neat Copilot integration in Excel, you can easily generate valuable insights from a database. Let's start with an example.
Open an Excel sheet with a database and click the Copilot icon in the top-right menu. Simply ask Copilot to show data insights. The AI chatbot can quickly analyze the data and create a small pivot chart to display the number of units sold by each salesperson. Copilot also shared a small summary of the data in text format.
Without Copilot, you would have to convert the database into a table and generate pivot tables in a different sheet to extract the same data. Copilot did the same job with only a simple text prompt.
Similarly, you can ask How many units did Jim sell? and the system should calculate and display the final data with a pivot table. Check the screenshot below for reference.
You can even get specific with your requests. For example, you can ask Which month did Jim sell the most units? and get relevant answers in no time.
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4 Generate suggestions for a formula column
Based on your current database, Microsoft Copilot can also suggest a formula column and let you insert one with a single click. Let's continue with the same example.
Open the Excel sheet and ask Copilot to Show a suggestion for a formula column. Excel calculated the total sales by removing the dollar sign from the sales amount and multiplying it by the number of units sold. It even shows the required function in case you'd like to use or adapt it for another column. You can glance over the top five results and click Insert column for whichever suggestion(s) you would like to utilize.
In the example above, Excel generated a formula column randomly. You can even be specific with your requests. When I asked, Combine sales person and region and create another column, Excel quickly created a formula and showed a column preview.
The possibilities are endless here. It all depends on your use case, database, and text prompts. You should be as descriptive as possible with your prompts to get the desired results in no time.
3 Apply color and formatting
This is another time-saving hack for Copilot users in Excel. When you are looking for specific data or product, fire up Copilot and ask it to highlight relevant cells.
I opened the same Excel sheet. I summoned Microsoft Copilot and asked it to highlight all cells with XPS 14. It showed a suggestion and a preview. By clicking Apply, we can see the formatting in action.
You can also ask for Total 'Units Sold' for 'Profit' excluding '$6000' and get the final results. Just click Apply, and you will instantaneously have the information you requested via chat.
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2 Understand your database
Microsoft has smartly integrated Copilot into your databases. You can just select columns and use the Copilot shortcut to highlight data or generate charts in real time. Let's continue with the same example.
Open an Excel sheet. Let's select the columns for salesperson and units sold. Click the Copilot button, slide to Chart, and create a quick graph that shows the total number of sales by each employee.
You can also slide to the Tables menu and check some of the ready-to-use pivot tables.
Copilot changes suggestions based on the data you select in Excel. It can be a huge productivity booster for professionals who frequently deal with large databases.
1 Other Copilot capabilities in Excel
Copilot efficiently tidies up messy data by removing extra spaces, merging values from different columns, highlighting duplicates, and applying sorting and filtering.
As you can see from the screenshots above, it also suggests recommendations for formulas, functions, and actions based on your context.
Programmers can even go a step ahead and ask Copilot to write VBA code to automate command tasks in Excel.
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Overall, if you are a power Excel user, Copilot is definitely worth your while to take for a test drive. It can automate your tedious tasks, help you uncover insights hidden within your data, and streamline your workflow in minutes. What are you waiting for? Explore Copilot, use the tricks above, and turn your Excel experience from a chore into a breeze.
Aside from Excel, your active Copilot plan unlocks the AI assistant on other Microsoft 365 apps, including OneNote. Check out our separate post to find the top tricks for using Copilot in Microsoft's note-taking app.
