Excel and I are the same age.
Microsoft released the first version in 1985, the same year I was born. So we are used to having Excel since 40 years, and I have never worked one single day in finance without it. Not at PwC, not at Thales.
Which is why, when someone asks me "is Excel dead now?" – I still think: I'm wondering when I will die if Excel will still be there as well 😉
Here's the thing though. I was already really good at Excel. And I still don't want to spend hours writing formulas if AI can do it for me. I know how to build a pivot table, I know VLOOKUP. I just prefer to talk to AI than to do them myself.
But also – that Excel is not going to disappear because an AI chat box appeared in the corner of your ribbon. But the was you should be using it has changed.
So today, 2 things:
- What AI tools are available in Excel
- Three changes you can make in the way you use AI in Excel to give yourself an unfair advantage right now
Let’s go.
What AI can you use in Excel?
What’s super important to know is you do not need to copy-paste your file into your AI chat window anymore. Most tools now exist in Excel.
Edit with Copilot (formerly Agent Mode): click the Copilot icon in Excel, then choose Allow editing from the mode menu.
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Most finance pros don't even know that they have access to Copilot in Excel (check your licensing).
Claude for Excel: open Excel, go to Add-ins, search for Claude, click Get It Now.
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It opens as a side panel and works with a Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise account.
ChatGPT: open Excel, go to Add-ins, search for ChatGPT, click Get It Now.
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Check the publisher really says OpenAI before you install it.
Gemini in Google Sheets: You should have this available automatically is you have a qualifying Google plan. It is already inside Google Sheets without any additional setup.
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All tools are capable, so it’s best to just pick the one that matches your current AI tool.
So what changes can you make right now?
My 3 Changes for using AI in Excel like a pro
Change 1 – Give it a structured table
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The way we made our spreadsheet for humans is not ideal for AI.
For 10 years I barely used tables at all. AI changed that for me in about a week.
Instead the best is to work with a structured table, the same way you would have as a source for pivot table
And on top, if you are mixing Actuals, Budget and Forecast, put them in one table with a Version column instead of one tab each. Then consolidation stops being a problem. In one of our AI Finance Club crash courses, after 69 seconds of using AI in Excel, the consolidation was done.
So providing the data is good and clear, manual steps like this are gone.
Change 2 – Stop sending one mega-prompt
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Mateusz (our resident Copilot AI Finance Club Expert) explains that one big prompt gives you something that looks good but hides the errors across four tabs.
I do this myself. I had to work out which sales were eligible for revenue share based on attribution criteria, pulling many different lists that all needed consolidating and mapping. Normally a full evening in Excel. Instead I asked AI to reconcile the two reports, then I looked only at the exceptions. Then I explained the rule for those exceptions and ran it again. Step by step until everything was clear. And while AI was working, I did something else.
Once it’s built, you can save it as a template, then just refresh the data. Don't rebuild the logic with AI every month. Microsoft calls the new way of working "vibe working," which is good, but you don’t want to ‘vibe’ all the time as you will lose control.
Vibe once, then standardize.
Change 3 – Ask for the audit tab in the same prompt
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AI in Excel can now do 80-90% of simple work, but always check it. 80 to 90% is a head start. But it is not a signed deliverable.
So put the check inside the prompt from the beginning. Ask it to build you an audit tab: assets equal liabilities, subtotals sum to the total, the consolidation ties back to the source data.
Then stress test it. I put crazy figures in, like one billion, and I check it still works. If everything should go huge and one number doesn't change, you just found your problem. I also look at the graphs, because a graph shows you a broken model faster than a formula does. And if something looks too complicated, I ask AI to simplify it, because complicated things break easily too.
And watch your own confidence. If it never makes a mistake, you stop checking. It's like somebody on your team who is really good, so you stop reviewing their work, until the day they make a mistake. Worse: if you don't understand the formula, you won't challenge it, because nobody likes to admit they don't understand something. If you cannot explain the steps, you cannot sign off.
An Extra Tip
One more thing: you don't need to retype this every time. Most tools let you save permanent instructions in your settings.
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Mine are: always use formulas, always add an audit tab, and use simple formulas when possible.
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The One Thing to Remember
AI in Excel is changing the way every day finance work is carried out. So Excel as a whole is not dead yet. But the traditional way of using it from scratch is.
Somebody in a session asked me a great question: was Copilot going to go "to the same fate as the little paper clip"? Remember Clippy?
My answer was no. Clippy interrupted you to guess what you wanted. AI does the work and hands it back for you to check.
The Excel that's dying is the one where your value was memorizing formulas. The Excel that's very much alive is the one where your value is deciding what's true.
Best,
Your AI Finance Expert,
– Nicolas
P.S – The best way to learn from me directly is to join my weekly masterclasses. 60-mins + Q&A where I’ll get all your AI in Finance questions answered. Join me here.
P.P.S. – Want to see AI in Excel building a real financial model live? Here are the prompts → Use Claude to Build Insane Finance Dashboards (+ Prompts)