I Don't Teach Excel Anymore.
I Teach AI in Excel.

What changed about learning Excel?

The spreadsheets themselves look much the same as they always have. What's new is that you can now ask an AI assistant for help with them.

Most of what I used to teach was memory work: which function adds up only the rows that meet a condition, how to make a date show as a date, and how to find one name in a list of four hundred. You either remembered the answer or you went searching for it again, for the third time that month. That loop of looking up the same thing again and again is why I keep writing about putting systems in place instead of relying on to-do lists. Anything you look up three times is asking to be written down.

With an AI assistant, you no longer have to carry all of that memory work in your head. You can describe what you want in your own words, and the AI assistant can usually suggest a formula to try, or explain a formula somebody else left behind.

You may not need to buy anything new to try an AI assistant. A lot of the software people already pay for has started adding an AI assistant of its own, inside the spreadsheet, the inbox, or the project board. Whichever AI assistant you already have is a reasonable place to start. Learn to ask on the tool that is already in front of you, and you can decide later whether you want more than that tool offers.

The second use, explaining a formula somebody else left behind, is the one I care about most. So many of us inherited a spreadsheet from a former employee, a board treasurer, a husband, or a volunteer who moved to Arizona. The spreadsheet works, mostly, and nobody knows why.

One example to try

Say you have a simple sheet of invoices. Column A has the client name. Column B says Paid or Unpaid. Column C has the amount. You want to know how much is still unpaid.

Open whichever AI assistant you already use. Claude, ChatGPT, or Copilot will all do for this example. Then type something close to this:

"I have a spreadsheet. Column B says Paid or Unpaid. Column C has dollar amounts. Write me a formula that adds up column C only for the rows that say Unpaid, and explain each part of it."

That last bit, "explain each part of it," is the whole lesson. Don't skip those five words.

The AI assistant will most likely hand you a formula called SUMIF, which adds up only the cells that meet a condition you set. Copy the formula into an empty cell and see what comes back. If you'd like to read about SUMIF from the people who made it, here is Microsoft's official SUMIF page, and here is Google's for Sheets.

Then check the formula. Copy the headings and five rows onto a blank sheet, and make sure some of those rows say Paid and some say Unpaid. Paste the formula into an empty cell off to the side (not under the amounts), and add up the Unpaid amounts from those five rows yourself, on a calculator or the back of an envelope. If the formula's total matches yours on those five rows, trust the formula with the whole list. AI is quick, and it's often right. AI can also be wrong with complete confidence, which, to be fair, I have also seen in a few people.

If something looks off, tell the AI assistant. "The total is lower than I expected. Rows 12 and 14 say Unpaid, but I think there's a space after the word." You can talk to your AI assistant the way you'd talk to a patient coworker. The AI assistant doesn't sigh at you. That patience alone is worth something.

The inherited spreadsheet

The same habit of asking works in reverse, when you start with a formula instead of a question. Click on a cell with a formula you don't understand, copy the formula itself, and paste it into your AI assistant with a request like "What does this formula do? Walk me through it one step at a time."

You don't have to paste your whole spreadsheet into a separate AI chat tool to ask about one formula. I'd rather you didn't paste the whole spreadsheet there, especially if it holds client names, donor details, or anything with an account number, because pasting a spreadsheet into a separate chat tool sends that data to another company. The formula alone is usually enough. If the AI assistant needs more context, describe the columns in words or make up a few pretend rows. Deciding what to keep out of AI tools is part of what I cover in AI coaching, and that decision is worth a minute of thought before you paste anything.

The AI assistant built into your spreadsheet program is a different case. Copilot in Excel and Gemini in Google Sheets work on your file from inside the program, so you aren't copying private details out into a separate chat tool. Everyone's comfort with risk is different, and mine is higher than most. In my opinion, the built-in AI assistant is safe to use with a real sheet, as long as you know which plan you're on. On a work or school account, Microsoft and Google both say your content isn't used to train their AI models without your permission. On a personal plan, Microsoft says the same for a Personal or Family subscription, and Google says the same for its paid Google AI plans. Google's free test program for personal accounts is the exception, because Google says people may read what you type there, so check which version you have first.

That one habit, asking before you panic, can clear up a lot of spreadsheet mysteries.

What still belongs to you

Some Excel basics still help, like knowing what a row and a column are, and knowing that a formula starts with an equals sign. Row, column, and formula are the words you'll use to describe what you want, and the clearer your words are, the better the AI assistant's answer will be.

Your judgement matters more than any formula. You know your numbers. You know when a total looks wrong because you know your business. The AI assistant doesn't know your business, and it only knows what you tell it.

So the skill I want to teach now is smaller and more useful than memorizing functions. You describe what you want. You ask the AI assistant to explain the formula. You check a few rows yourself. Then you repeat those steps the next time you need a formula.

If this still feels like a lot

After two decades in spreadsheets, I still don't carry all of Excel in my head. Not having to carry all of Excel around is the whole point of asking.

You don't have to learn everything in this post at once. Try the invoice example on a pretend sheet of five rows. A pretend sheet is a safe place to practice. If the formula works on the pretend sheet, try it on a real spreadsheet next week.

It's never too late to learn a new way of doing an old thing. I'm figuring it out right alongside you.