Microsoft Excel now has the Copilot AI, with the ability to clean data to reduce errors with formulas. Now, Excel automatically scours your spreadsheet for consistency issues, and instantly notifies you if you need to take action to make your data work more smoothly.
Previously, you would manually tell Excel to clean your data by clicking the “Clean Data” button in the Data tab on the ribbon.
Recognizing the usefulness of this feature, Microsoft has now introduced a pop-up banner that appears across the top of your Excel worksheet if it notices issues that need addressing.
When you click “Show Suggestions,” a separate window will highlight any issues. There, you can use the arrows to scroll through the AI technology’s suggestions, and click “Apply” or “Ignore” to either implement or disregard the changes.
Here are some more specifics about some of the issues that Copilot in Excel will review to clean up your data:
- Text inconsistencies: Excel will spot variations in what it perceives as similar value types, such as differences in capitalization or punctuation.
- Number formatting issues: Recognizing that arrays tend to require consistent number formatting, Excel will notify you if, for example, you have a percentage and a fraction number format in the same column.
- Problematic spaces: Accidentally adding a space within your data could cause formula issues down the line, so Excel will let you know if it sees an extra leading, trailing, or between-value space in your data.
To benefit from this feature, which is currently only available in Excel for the web, you’ll need a Copilot Pro license, costing $20 per month. Microsoft also advises that it works best when your data is properly formatted into Excel tables containing no more than 100 columns and 50,000 rows.
Given that this feature has only been added to Excel in recent months, Microsoft is keen to express that “it may or may not behave as you anticipate,” especially if your computer and Excel sheet are using a language other than English. However, the company has stressed that it’s “always improving” the Clean Data feature, which “will be rolling out to Windows desktop users in the coming months.”
Source: Microsoft
