Let AI Do the Complex Parts of Spreadsheets for You

Tables suck, am I right? Actually I do not know. Fortunately, in my work, I avoided the need to often use Excel or Google Sheets. I write most of my work in a CMS, not in spreadsheet cells. But I know that many of you use spreadsheets, perhaps with varying levels of enthusiasm. Whether you enjoy working in Excel or not, if you’re looking to improve your productivity, artificial intelligence can help.

Even in its infancy, AI is changing the way we think about work ( and everything else ). Only time will tell if AI takes over the job of data entry, but until then, you can use it to your advantage. This can help speed up spreadsheet work and suggest the exact formula to use for a given task. Don’t waste brain power coding your way to a finished spreadsheet; The AI ​​can do it for you without breaking a sweat.

AI is coming to your spreadsheet apps from the top down: Microsoft is currently testing Copilot , its AI integration assistant, across all of its Microsoft 365 apps . Google is working on integrating the AI ​​tool into Spreadsheets , starting with Workspace accounts, in over the next few months. However, these tools are not yet available, so for the time being we need to rely on third-party developments to add some AI to our workflow.

GPTExcel is a useful basic AI spreadsheet tool.

GPTExcel is one such tool available for use right now. It’s extremely simple and intuitive. First, enter the function to be executed – let’s say you want to capitalize all odd cells in a spreadsheet for some reason. After entering the hint, you choose whether this formula will be implemented in Excel or Sheets, as these two tools have different commands. Click “Create” and the AI ​​will generate the right formula for your needs.

In our uppercase example, it outputs the following for Excel and Spreadsheets:

• Excel: =IF(MOD (ROW(),2)=1,CAPITAL(A1),A1)
• Sheets: = ARRAY FORMULA(IF(MODE(ROW(A1:A),2)=1,CAPITAL(A1:A),A1:A))

Luckily, AI doesn’t just suggest a mess of code without explanation, at least if you ask it to. Go to the “Explain” tab, paste your formula, then click “Explain Formula” and GPTExcel will walk you through what’s going on to make this formula work. For an Excel formula, here’s the suggestion:

“This formula checks if a row number is odd or even using the MOD function. If the line number is odd, it converts the text in cell A1 to uppercase using the CAPITAL function. If the line number is even, it returns the text in cell A1 as is. The IF function is used to perform this check and return the appropriate result.”

As with anything AI-related, you need to double check the robot’s performance before applying it to something too important. You don’t want to take a spreadsheet to your boss only to find that the formula you used has ruined all the data. (This is how spreadsheet assignments work, right?)