21
Lesson 21 · 2 min
Spreadsheets and data
You no longer need to remember formulas; describe what you want in plain words and AI writes it.
Tell AI what your columns are and what you want: "Column A is date, B is city, C is sales. I want total sales per city for March." It gives you the formula for Excel or Google Sheets and explains it.
Many assistants can also open a spreadsheet file, run the calculation, and draw a chart. Spreadsheet apps now have AI helpers built in.
Data is where small mistakes hide. Test the formula on a few rows you can check by hand before trusting it on thousands.
Remember privacy. Remove names, phone numbers and salary details, or use made-up sample rows to get the formula, then apply it to the real file yourself.
Do it now
Get one formula you need
- 1.Open a spreadsheet you use often.
- 2.Describe your columns and your goal using the prompt below.
- 3.Paste the formula, then check three rows by hand.
I use [Excel / Google Sheets]. My columns are: [A = ..., B = ..., C = ...]. Data runs from row 2 to row [N]. I want to [GOAL]. Give me the formula, explain it in one line, and tell me one way it could go wrong.
Words from this lesson
- Prompt
- The instruction or question you give an AI. Clearer prompts with context usually get much better answers.
- Multimodal
- Able to work with more than one kind of input or output, such as text, images, sound and video together.
- Agent
- An AI system that takes several steps on its own, such as searching, clicking or using apps, to finish a goal you set.