Microsoft Excel Tests New Copilot Function With Ability to Classify Data, Generate Summaries and More

Microsoft Excel is now testing a new Copilot() function for its spreadsheet software. The new Copilot function will bring a suite of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered features to Excel, which will allow users to summarise a spreadsheet's data, whether it belongs to a specific column, row (or the entire table) into paragraphs and sentences. It will be available to both Mac and Windows users. However, it is currently only rolling out to Microsoft Office beta versions and the Microsoft Excel for Mac version 16.101.

Microsoft Excel's Copilot Function Can Perform Sentiment Analysis

In a blog post, the Redmond-based tech company has announced that it is integrating the Copilot() function into Microsoft Excel, bringing AI-enabled features to the software. With the added functionality, the users will now be able to summarise spreadsheet data, presented in tables, into paragraphs and sentences. The features will now be able to do sentiment analysis. For example, the Copilot function will be able to assign specific emojis to specific data points for easier viewing.

The Copilot function has been integrated directly into Microsoft Excel's calculation engine. As the data is modified in one of the spreadsheets, the results simultaneously get updated. It also eliminates the need for users to re-run scripts and refresh add-ins. The new function works with the existing formulas, like IF, SWITCH, LAMBDA, or WRAPROWS.

How to Use Microsoft Excel's Copilot Function

One can initiate the function by simply typing “COPILOT” into one of the cells, followed by the code. For example, “=COPILOT(prompt_part1, [context1], [prompt_part2], [context2], ...)”. The prompt text describes the task or query for the AI model, context provides reference from the grid, present in a single cell or a range.

The company said that a user's data, sent through the new Copilot function, is “never used” to train or improve the large language models (LLM). “The information you input remains confidential and is used solely to generate your requested output,” the company added.

In addition to generating summaries, Excel's new Copilot() function will also allow users to generate ideas, classify data, and create lists or tables, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft Excel Working on Known Copilot() Bugs

Microsoft also highlighted a few issues that it is working to resolve. The Redmond-based tech giant has found that rows can be omitted when returning arrays, which the company said can be bypassed by restructuring queries to return smaller array results.

In the future, the company could add support for the LLM to work without access to web or enterprise data. As of now, the Copilot function returns dates as text rather than Excel's date serial format, which Microsoft is looking to fix, too.

The Copilot function is currently rolling out to beta channel users who have a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. It is available for Excel for Windows version 2509 (build 19212.20000 or later) and Excel for Mac version 16.101 (build 25081334 or later). Web users will also get access to the new functionality soon via the Frontier program.

According to a recent report, OpenAI has also been developing a ChatGPT productivity tools that would reduce a user's reliance on Microsoft's Excel and PowerPoint. With this, the company is reportedly aiming to allow users to create and edit spreadsheets and PowerPointt presentations directly form the ChatGPT interface.