Using AI to scope out new Excel functions
I did something different. At least I think I did.
One night, as I was perusing for the latest news, especially weather news, a YouTube video popped up in my feed about a new Excel function that could possibly replace Pivot Tables.
Replace Pivot Tables ?!?
Then, I realized I hadn’t been seeing any videos pertaining to Excel, Power BI or AI, so I thought it was time to go back and see what was new. It could have been months since I last saw any videos, and I may have been missing out on cool new features.
But rather than search through YouTube videos from Leila Gharani, I did something different.
I asked CoPilot to search through the internet and tell me what was new for Excel in the way of functions during 2023.
And it complied and gave me the following:
- Vstack and Hstack: to stack multiple tables vertically or horizontally4
- TextSplit: to split text into columns or rows by a delimiter4
- TextBefore and TextAfter: to extract text before or after a delimiter4
- Image: to import an image from the internet into a cell4
- Image to Text: to convert an image of a table into data4
- ToCol and ToRow: to convert a table into a single column or row4
- Take and Drop: to select specific rows and columns from a table4
- Expand: to create a dynamic range that grows with the data4
- GROUPBY and PIVOTBY: to perform data aggregations using a single formula5 6
- AI.Ask, AI.Translate, AI.Extract, AI.Fill, AI.List, and AI.Format: to use artificial intelligence to perform various tasks such as asking questions, translating text, extracting data, filling data, listing data, and formatting data6
Source(s)
1. What’s New in Excel (January 2023) – Microsoft Community Hub
2. What’s New in Excel (November 2023) – Microsoft Community Hub
3. FIRST LOOK: Excel’s six new AI Copilot functions – Office Watch
4. 8 Awesome New Excel Formulas for 2023 | Do you know them?
It wasn’t quite as simple as just asking it to give me a list of 10 new functions; I had to do at least two promptings. I will do another posting on my thoughts and approaches on prompting but just know that I did not arrive at this list with a single grand prompt.
The one that may replace Pivot Tables is either GROUPBY or PIVOTBY or both. I don’t know because right now I don’t have access to those functions. The others I do, except for the last bullet point: the ones pertaining to AI. That one is piquing my interest. Hmmm, I wonder how that works. Of course, I know I don’t have those functions.
But they are something I will have to look out for in the future.
Now I have a new use for CoPilot.
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