Excel introduces co-pilot function

Microsoft has ushered in the AI era for Excel: with the Copilot function, an AI language model is integrated directly into the spreadsheet for the first time – for both Windows and Mac. Users can now access the beta feature from version 2509 (build 19212.20000) for Windows or version 16.101 (build 25081334) for Mac, provided they have a corresponding license for Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Excel, make my financial statements look as good as possible

The new function makes it possible to trigger tasks for the AI using natural language. Microsoft gives the examples of classifying customer feedback, summarizing long texts, brainstorming ideas, creating lists or generating multi-line tables directly from the Excel grid. The formula =COPILOT("Prompt", range) processes a work order – for example "Evaluate the mood in this feedback" – and uses cell or range references as context.

As the copilot function is integrated directly into Excel's calculation model, the AI results adapt automatically when data changes. This means that users do not have to restart scripts or update add-ins. The function can be seamlessly combined with existing Excel formulas such as IF, SWITCH or LAMBDA and can access results from other functions – According to Microsoft, this should significantly speed up and simplify the workflow.

Only works with Excel data

However, users must note that the Copilot function currently only works with data that is available in the workbook. This means that it cannot (yet) retrieve live web data or internal company documents. According to Microsoft, the input is processed confidentially and is not used to train the AI. Each user is currently allowed 100 Copilot calls every 10 minutes or 300 per hour. However, there are plans to reduce the limits in the long term and integrate additional functions, such as better support for date values.

As the feature is still in beta, the developers explicitly ask for user feedback in the announcement via the built-in feedback mechanisms in Excel and via the support pages. Previously, Microsoft had already integrated an AI assistant into Office, which users could use to help them with text writing, for example. The free competitor LibreOffice does not yet offer any native AI functions, but these can be added via extensions. One example of a local generative AI is localwriter.

(fo)