|

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?

5. 10 New Features in Microsoft Excel | Fall 2023

6. 8 New Features in Microsoft Excel | Summer 2023

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.

Similar Posts

New Excel Thing - Dynamic Charting

New Excel Trick (for me): Dynamic Charting

While I wait to get the word “go” from the government (hopefully not much longer…I’m crossing my fingers although it’s taking a while to get the approval on my software), I’ve been working on another project that recently popped up a week or so ago. I’m trying to develop a quasi-visual reporting system that’s easily…

Simulation picture
| |

I was surprised about this

I was doing something new the other day and was surprised at the outcome. I ended up with a situation where no matter my starting position, I usually ended up with either you flame out before you reached 50 rounds (most likely 10 rounds) or you succeed and run on to 650 rounds – my…

User Experience

You Need to Include User Experience

This week I had a request for help in designing a report for submission to owners. Previously, the managers have been pulling a bunch of reports and trying to manually produce the report, but on Thursday I got a cry for help. Understandably, they just got tired of doing it manually. And this request wasn’t…

Bad use of software tools
|

Bad use of software tools

AI as a replacement tool While a lot of the consulting firms and technology companies urge other companies trying to deploy AI to regard AI as a complement to human intelligence, there are other companies – the more Milton Friedman, capitalist, free market types, the more harsher types – deploying AI as a way of…

Excel trick to convert a downloaded report into a flat file

Excel trick to convert a downloaded report into a flat file

This posting will be more technical than usual as it will be showing a lot of formulas. Right now I’m helping my boss prepare the budget file in preparation for budgeting season. One of the things we want to do is improve a particular section of the file which was giving her headaches: I’ll call…

Techniques #2

New Techniques – Post #2

In the last post, I mentioned that there was a problem with the random technique that I was doing. There are two problems: I figured out one problem – more or less – but haven’t figured out the second problem. The first problem is the fact that every time you enter something, the spreadsheet will…