Unlocking AI-enabled analysis

1. Unlocking AI-enabled analysis

Hi, and welcome to this course on Microsoft Copilot in Excel!

2. Meet your instructor...

This course was created with Susanth Sutheesh, Senior Solutions Engineer for Copilot and Agentic AI at Microsoft.

3. What is Copilot in Excel?

When you hear about "Microsoft Copilot", you may immediately think of the chat interface, where you can ask general questions, upload documents for review and explanations, or request documents be created based on prompts.

4. What is Copilot in Excel?

But the chat app is only one way in. Copilot is also built directly into the Microsoft 365 apps you already use.

5. What is Copilot in Excel?

In Excel, Copilot is your analytical companion that can help you generate data, explain formulas, and perform multi-step analyses. In this course, you'll learn how Copilot can augment your existing Excel workflows, differentiate between asking and doing inside Excel, and validate what Copilot gives you before relying on it. Let's dive in!

6. Chatting versus doing

When using Copilot in Excel, there are two modes of working with Copilot: chatting and doing. For tasks like asking questions about your data, getting explanations for formulas, or receiving suggestions, we're not looking for Copilot to make instant changes to our workbooks. These conversations may eventually lead us to that point, but we don't need to give Copilot that agency from the beginning. This is the default behavior of Copilot's chat interface. Alternatively, tasks like creating example data, building charts, and running analyses require Copilot to have the agency to make edits to our workbooks. In Excel, that means leaving the mode control set to "Allow editing". So when you open Copilot, consider what the desired output of the interaction is, and pick the mode to match.

7. OneDrive to rule them all

In both modes, ensuring that your workbook is saved to OneDrive is key to unlocking these capabilities. OneDrive gives Copilot seamless access to your worksheets—another example of how tightly it’s integrated across Microsoft apps. In browser versions of Excel, like what we'll be using in this course, this OneDrive connection should be automatic. For desktop versions, you'll need to ensure that the AutoSave button is switched on.

8. Example: Generating mock data

Let's start to use Copilot by creating a mock dataset. Because we want Copilot to add data into our workbook, it needs permission to edit the sheet. Open Copilot using the button in the lower-right corner of the canvas - that is where it should be - and check that the mode control reads "Allow editing".

9. Example: Generating mock data

From here, we can prompt Copilot with the task and context needed.

10. Example: Generating mock data

We request a table with three columns called userID, region, and numTransactions, and ten rows of data.

11. Three Copilot modes

Copilot offers three modes, and the one you pick decides how much freedom it has. Allow editing lets Copilot write straight into your workbook, and it is the mode selected by default. Plan asks it to describe what it intends to do first, which is useful for anything complicated. Chat only keeps it in conversation, answering questions without changing a single cell.

12. Example: Formula explanation

We prompt Copilot to create and explain a formula for the number of transactions per region. These kinds of requests mean you can focus on higher level thinking and less on debugging formula errors. Once it's done, you can ask for follow-up clarifications, and even insert it into your sheet from the chat. Choosing Chat only just means nothing is written to the workbook unless you ask for it.

13. Let's practice!

Time for you to begin exploring the two modes of using Copilot in Excel!

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