Microsoft continues to integrate AI services, mainly Copilot, into its products. The age of AI in Microsoft products started out mostly as a chat interface, but progress has been made, and integrations now find their way into core Microsoft products such as Office or Windows. Just recently, Microsoft announced Copilot Mode for Edge, that turns the browser into an agentic tool, and Copilot Vision for Windows, which gives Copilot eyes so to speak on Windows.
Microsoft Excel is the latest product to receive a dose of AI. Called Copilot Function, it is available as a beta currently, which means that it is only accessible to customers who have joined the Microsoft 365 Insider program and have a Copilot license.
The function "allows users to leverage artificial intelligence by providing a prompt and references from the grid to generate responses based on an AI language model" according to a support document.
The Copilot function accepts prompts that describe the task. Excel users may ask questions or instruct the AI to perform certain operations. The optional context parameter may be used to provide additional reference.
Microsoft explains that Excel users may use the new AI function to summarize text, generate sample data, classify or tag content, or generate text.
However, it is the "when not to use the Copilot function" that is the most interesting to Excel users. Microsoft confirms that Copilot can "give incorrect responses". As a consequence, it should not be used for pretty much anything that Excel is used for. This includes doing numerical calculations, lookups based on data in workbooks, tasks with legal, regulatory or compliance implications, or responses that require context other than the ranges provided.
Put simply, while Excel's AI functionality is being expanded, it should not be used for core Excel tasks such as calculations. It seems unlikely that many Excel users will jump for joy when the new functionality becomes available.
Still, Copilot Functions is a beta product at the time and there is a chance that Microsoft is using the beta to play it safe. Whether the warning will remain when the new AI feature is rolled out to stable versions of Excel remains to be seen.
Now You: do you use AI functions regularly already? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
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