Microsoft brings AI-powered auto-fill to Excel spreadsheets

Microsoft Excel has begun testing a new AI-powered feature that can automatically fill cells in spreadsheets, The Verge reports.

The COPILOT function works through natural language prompts and can classify information, generate summaries, and create tables.

To use it, you enter COPILOT with a text request and specify the cell range for analysis. For example, the formula =COPILOT("Classify this review", D4:D18) will automatically sort product reviews into categories within the selected cells.

Microsoft has set some limits: no more than 100 functions every 10 minutes, no access to external data, and a warning not to rely on the AI for numerical calculations or critical use cases due to potential errors.

The feature is available to Windows and Mac users in the Beta Channel with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. The company plans to expand its capabilities with updates to the underlying model and future web access support.