Copilot in Excel

Copilot in Excel can explain an unfamiliar formula, identify patterns and inconsistencies, help complete multistep work across a workbook, and create charts from plain-language requests. Its usefulness, however, depends heavily on the structure and quality of the spreadsheet. Merged cells, inconsistent formatting, multiple header rows, and incomplete data can lead to partial, inaccurate, or misleading results.

This workshop covers both sides of working with Copilot in Excel, what it can accomplish with well-structured tabular data and how to prepare a workbook so that its analysis can be understood, checked, and trusted.

We recommend this workshop for analysts, finance and operations professionals, and anyone who regularly creates, reviews, or inherits spreadsheets. No advanced formula knowledge is required. Participants will learn how to interpret unfamiliar formulas, investigate data in plain language, and evaluate the results Copilot produces.

Participants will need access to Copilot in Excel and an editable .xlsx workbook stored in OneDrive or SharePoint with AutoSave enabled.

This session builds directly on Microsoft Copilot Fundamentals.

Participants will learn to:

• Prepare and structure spreadsheet data so Copilot can analyze it effectively
• Ask questions about data in plain language and verify the answers Copilot provides
• Use Copilot to understand, create, and troubleshoot formulas
• Identify patterns, trends, and outliers without manually building a pivot table
• Create charts and summaries that remain accurate when checked against the underlying data
• Decide when to continue working in Excel and when the task is better suited to Analyst or another analytical tool