Microsoft is building generative AI directly into the cells of Excel, attempting to bring one of the defining apps of the PC revolution into a new generation of computing.
A new “COPILOT” function for Microsoft’s classic spreadsheet program lets users generate, summarize, and analyze data using plain-language prompts inside a cell.
For example, a product manager with a column of raw customer feedback could type =COPILOT(“What is the sentiment of the comment in cell A2?”) to quickly label each remark as ‘Positive,’ ‘Negative,’ or ‘Neutral,’ without using a chatbot or plugin.
“I just love this,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote on LinkedIn, sharing a demo video. In the 1990s, Nadella worked as a technical marketing manager for Excel — once showing how the program could pull data from a mainframe into a spreadsheet using Windows NT Server, a capability considered cutting-edge at the time.
The announcement Monday coincided with coordinated release of videos from tech influencers given early access to the tool. Their demos showed examples such as the ability to generate product descriptions, clean messy data by extracting names and phone numbers, and explain complex Excel formulas in plain English.
The move reflects broader attempts by Microsoft and other tech giants, including Google, Adobe, Salesforce and others, to refresh legacy apps with AI features.
Previous integrations of AI into Excel focused on explaining complex formulas or suggesting data visualizations from the sidelines, acting more as a helpful guide than an active co-worker in the grid.
Microsoft says the feature is rolling out now on Excel for Windows and Mac to Beta Channel users with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses and recent versions of the software. The company says the feature will be available for Excel on the web soon through its Frontier program.
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