Hi, Insiders! I’m Catherine Pidgeon, a Partner Director on the Excel team. Today, I’m excited to introduce the new COPILOT function in Microsoft Excel for Windows and Excel for Mac, a major step forward in how you work with data that brings the power of large language models directly into the grid and makes it easier than ever to analyze text, generate content, and work faster.
It can be painful and time-consuming to wrangle data, summarize feedback, categorize information, and brainstorm ideas. The new COPILOT function in Excel for Windows and Excel for Mac is here to save time and supercharge your workflows! Just enter a natural language prompt in your spreadsheet, reference cell values as needed, and watch Copilot instantly generate AI-powered results.
And because this function is built into Excel’s calculation engine, every time your data changes, your results automatically update, too. No need to re-run scripts or refresh add-ins – your analysis will always be current and relevant.
The COPILOT function also works naturally alongside your existing Excel functions. It can be used inside formulas like IF, SWITCH, LAMBDA, or WRAPROWS, or you can use results from other formulas as part of its prompt. This makes it easy to add AI features to your spreadsheets without changing how they are set up.
To use the new COPILOT function, you’ll enter this code into any cell: =COPILOT(prompt_part1, [context1], [prompt_part2], [context2], …)
The COPILOT function syntax has the following arguments:
- Prompt_part: Text that describes the task or question for the AI model.
- Context (optional): A reference from the grid that provides context or data for the AI model. This can be a single cell or a range.
Let’s say you’ve collected comments about a new coffee machine. Traditionally, you’d manually read, tag, and summarize this data. With the COPILOT function, you can simply reference the range of feedback, ask Copilot to classify each comment by sentiment or category, and gather actionable insights.
For example: =COPILOT(“Classify this feedback”, D4:D18)
From this, Copilot might give the following results:
NOTE: Your data sent through the COPILOT function is never used to train or improve the AI models. The information you input remains confidential and is used solely to generate your requested output.
Here are some ways to leverage the COPILOT function in Excel to work more efficiently and effectively:
- Spur ideas: Whether you’re planning a marketing campaign or designing new product features, the COPILOT function makes brainstorming directly in the Excel grid easy. Need a set of SEO keywords based on a product description? Want to rewrite messaging for clarity or change the tone? COPILOT can handle that, too.
- Generate summaries: The COPILOT function can distill large data ranges or long passages into concise narratives, highlight trends, or produce plain language explanations for complex calculations. This is especially valuable for reporting when you need to turn lengthy background material into concise, audience-ready content.
- Classify data: You can use the COPILOT function to categorize text data, such as customer feedback, support tickets, or survey responses, right in your spreadsheet, instead of having to export the data to another tool for tagging or sentiment analysis.
- Create lists or tables: The COPILOT function can generate lists and tables of data that fit seamlessly into your models. Whether you’re building a quick dataset for testing formulas, assembling a list of industry examples, or drafting a project plan outline, the function can return multi-row, multi-column outputs that spill directly into the grid.
- How you write your prompt makes a big difference in what COPILOT returns – the clearer your instructions, the more useful your results will be. Specify which cells, rows, or columns to include in your analysis, the order you want the results to appear in, and the format you need, such as a list or a table with headers.
- Use direct action words like “summarize,” “categorize,” or “rank,” and give examples if you want the output in a certain style or format.
- COPILOT uses data available within the large language model itself, meaning it cannot directly access live web data or internal business documents. If you need COPILOT to analyze current or internal data, first import that data into your workbook, and then reference it directly within the COPILOT function. Its output should be reviewed and validated for accuracy, especially for critical business decisions or reports. (Support for live web data and internal business documents will be added in the future.)
- The function currently supports 100 calls every 10 minutes, and up to 300 calls per hour. If you need additional calls, consider passing arrays – a single call that includes a larger range of data counts only as one usage, while dragging or filling the function across multiple cells counts as multiple individual calls. We will expand the number of calls over time, providing an even more robust and flexible experience for all Excel users.
- The COPILOT function is entirely optional and is only added to your worksheets when you choose to use it.
- To learn more about the new COPILOT function, visit our support page.
By its nature, AI is continuously improving, and the COPILOT function is no different. We are considering many improvements – some of these improvements will be available through the beta phase, and others will come in the future based on your feedback, or be areas of continued enhancement.
Some areas we are working on and/or investigating include:
- Better large array support: Rows can be omitted when returning arrays. To work around this, restructure your queries to return smaller array results.
- Best-in-class models: We are actively testing and benchmarking models for the best blend of performance and capabilities. The underlying model will evolve and get more capable over time.
- Better guidance: We are investigating providing user guidance when the COPILOT function is used for tasks not suitable for LLMs. For example: =COPILOT(“Sum these values”,A1:A10).
- Enhanced knowledge: The COPILOT function is model grounded, with no access to web and enterprise data. We are investigating adding support for expanding these capabilities.
- Better date support: Currently, the COPILOT function returns dates as text rather than Excel’s date serial format.
The COPILOT function is now rolling out to Beta Channel users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license (get more details on licenses for businesses) and running:
- Windows: Version 2509 (Build 19212.20000) or later.
- Mac: Version 16.101 (Build 25081334) or later.
It will be rolling out to Excel for the web users soon through the Frontier program (learn more).
We look forward to seeing the innovative ways our community leverages the COPILOT function! Please submit your feedback by selecting the thumbs up or down buttons in the “AI-generated” pop-up in your Excel spreadsheet.
The COPILOT function is the successor to the LABS.GENERATIVEAI function that debuted as an experiment in our Excel Labs add-in. Thank you to the community for all your feedback to date!
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