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Summary
- Microsoft's Copilot on Excel now operates context-free, making it easier to manage data without explicit directions.
- Users can give Copilot commands like "Analyze ice cream prices" or "Explain the formula in G7" to obtain insights.
- Real-time monitoring allows users to oversee Copilot's actions on their spreadsheet and intervene if necessary to prevent errors.
It's hard to use a Microsoft product these days and not have Copilot popping its head in to see how you're doing. While some apps aren't really enhanced with Microsoft's AI assistant, Copilot is one of the exceptions. The ability to quickly get stuff done and create formulae using English descriptions makes things a lot easier.
If you've been enjoying using Copilot on Excel, you're about to fall in love with it all over again. Microsoft has announced a big update for Copilot on Excel, and it looks like it will really aid people in sorting through their data better than ever before.
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Copilot for Excel gets a massive update
In a blog post on the Microsoft Tech Community website, the company went over what's included in the update. The biggest change is how Copilot no longer needs you to give it context for it to operate. Beforehand, if you wanted to sic Copilot onto a specific area of your spreadsheet, you had to click a cell on or near the part you wanted to edit. Copilot would then look around that cell and use the context you give it in text to figure out what you want.
Microsoft states that, while this is perfectly fine for smaller sheets, it gets a little troublesome with bigger workspaces. So, now you can just tell Copilot what you want to do and it'll figure it out without you pointing it in the right direction.
Here are some example commands Microsoft uses to show what Copilot can do now:
- “Analyze the ice cream prices”
- “Suggest charts for the table in Sheet2”
- “Color the column I’m selecting in yellow”
- “Show insights for the data I was just working on”
- “Explain the formula in G7”
- “Sort the table on the top right”
You may be (understandably) concerned about letting Copilot loose on your sheet and letting it decide what it needs to do. Fortunately, Microsoft will also show you what Copilot is doing in real time so you can check its work. If it veers off the track, you can step in and tell Copilot to stop before it messes up your data.
The update is available right now, so see if it arrived on your computer. If you have Excel for Windows version 2505 (Build 18623.20058) or Excel for Mac version 16.95 (Build 2506.3090), congratulations; you can make use of the feature where Copilot grabs context by itself. If you have version 2505 (Build 18705.20000) on Windows or version 16.96 (Build 2506.4070) on Mac, you can see what Copilot is doing too.
If you're still unsure as to how Microsoft's AI assistant can help, check out these five ways to up your Excel game with Microsoft Copilot.
English (US) ·