It’s no secret that Microsoft wants everyone to use Copilot wherever possible. Even if it’s a free feature, it may still lead you down a pathway to using the service in a paid offering, which is Microsoft’s ultimate goal. The next upgrade for Copilot in Excel is here, making it more flexible, intuitive making working with data faster and easier.
Copilot has been able to determine which table to use based on the cell selected, defaulting to the nearest structured table. No things are a bit more intuitive with the context inference capabilities for example you can ask any of the following:
- “Analyze the ice cream prices”
- “Suggest charts for the table in Sheet2”
- “Color the column I’m selecting in yellow”
- “Show insights for the data I was just working on”
- “Explain the formula in G7”
- “Sort the table on the top right”
Copilot will use natural language to analyze your intent, utilizing queues such as the cell you have selected and chat history to select the required operation, eliminating the need for mouse clicks. The new ability focuses on structured data, such as Excel tables with supported data ranges. A more comprehensive model is expected to follow later.
To help build a user’s trust, there is also a visual experience that shows you the data Copilot is working with. When you submit a query, you will see an outline that displays the data being used. If it’s not right, you can stop the request and update your prompt. This more intuitive option is equipped for both small and large worksheets.
These features are available to all users of Windows, Mac, and web platforms.
Smart Context Inference based on user’s prompt, starting with builds:
- Windows: Version 2505 (Build 18623.20058)
- Mac: Version 16.95 (Build 2506.3090)
Visual highlight of inferred table, starting with builds:
- Windows: Version 2505 (Build 18705.20000)
- Mac: Version 16.96 (Build 2506.4070)
