I had been ignoring Power Query for years, treating Excel like a calculator with a few handy formulas—until a messy, cross‑vendor CSV pile forced me to learn the tool everyone always brags about. What started as a tedious weekend of copy‑pasting and find‑and‑replace turned into a few well‑chosen...
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Microsoft has quietly changed one of Excel’s oldest conventions: now you can call an AI assistant from inside a worksheet cell the same way you call SUM or VLOOKUP — with a new COPILOT function that accepts plain‑language prompts, references ranges and tables, and returns dynamic, spillable...
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natural language prompts
onedrive
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prompt engineering
rate limits
sharepoint
spillable outputs
spreadsheet automation
Microsoft's latest change to the Microsoft 365 Copilot mobile experience on iOS—which converts the app into a file preview and Copilot chat wrapper that redirects editing tasks to standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps—represents a deliberate shift in how the company structures mobile...
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Microsoft has pushed generative AI squarely into the heart of Excel with a native =COPILOT(...) formula that lets users type natural‑language prompts directly into cells, reference worksheet ranges for context, and receive live, spillable AI outputs that recalculate automatically as the source...
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analytics in excel
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Microsoft has put generative AI directly into the cell grid: the new COPILOT function lets users type plain‑English prompts into Excel formulas and returns live, spillable outputs — summaries, classifications, tables and more — that update automatically as the underlying data changes. This...
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Microsoft has quietly moved one of the most consequential AI experiments of the last year from a sidebar into the very fabric of Excel: the new COPILOT function lets users write plain‑language prompts directly in a cell and receive AI‑generated results that behave like any other formula in the...
Microsoft has quietly moved one of the most game‑changing ideas in AI — a conversational, generative assistant — from a sidebar into the heart of a spreadsheet, by introducing a native =COPILOT() formula that runs Copilot prompts directly inside Excel cells and returns live, spillable outputs...
Microsoft has quietly — and deliberately — taken the next step in turning Excel from a grid of formulas into a conversational interface by embedding a native =COPILOT function that lets users type natural-language prompts directly into cells and have generative AI return live, recalculating...
Excel’s new COPILOT() function hands everyday spreadsheet users an AI-powered microscope and a blunt instrument at the same time: it can summarize, classify, extract, and generate structured outputs from free-text or tabular data with a single cell formula, but it also introduces new...
Microsoft has put a generative AI assistant where most knowledge workers spend the bulk of their time: directly into Excel’s grid with a new COPILOT function that lets Microsoft 365 Copilot run natural-language prompts inside individual cells and return multi-cell arrays, categories, summaries...
ai in excel
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prompt engineering
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spreadsheet ai
Microsoft is rolling a generative AI function directly into Excel’s calculation engine — a native formula called COPILOT() that lets users pass natural‑language prompts and optional grid ranges to a cloud AI model and receive live, recalculating outputs inside cells, a capability that closely...
Microsoft’s Security Response Center has published an advisory listing CVE-2025-53739 — an Excel vulnerability described as “Access of resource using incompatible type (‘type confusion’)” that can lead to code execution when a crafted spreadsheet is processed by the desktop client...
Microsoft has confirmed a use‑after‑free vulnerability in Microsoft Excel (tracked as CVE‑2025‑53735) that can lead to local code execution when a crafted spreadsheet is opened — a serious document‑based attack vector that demands immediate attention from IT teams and security‑minded users...
A heap‑based buffer overflow found in Microsoft Excel, tracked as CVE‑2025‑53741, has been published in Microsoft's Security Update Guide as a vulnerability that can allow an attacker to execute code on a victim machine when a crafted spreadsheet is opened; administrators and users should treat...
Microsoft’s newest Copilot integration puts a human-readable explanation of complex Excel formulas directly into the worksheet, translating opaque function tokens into plain‑language summaries, step‑by‑step breakdowns, and context-aware notes so users can understand, audit, and safely modify...
Microsoft 365 has quietly moved one of OneNote’s most praised inking features — the Fountain pen and Brush pen — into the core productivity apps, bringing a richer, more natural inking experience to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on Windows devices.
Background
Microsoft introduced the Fountain pen...
Microsoft’s decision to retire the standalone Microsoft Lens mobile scanner marks a decisive step in its product consolidation around Copilot — a move that preserves core capture and OCR capabilities but abandons several of Lens’s most convenient and accessibility-driven workflows, forcing...
Microsoft is rolling Copilot deeper into Excel with an inline “Explain this formula” experience that breaks down complex formulas directly on the worksheet, letting users read a contextual, step‑by‑step explanation without leaving the grid — a change that promises to speed audits, improve...
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Microsoft’s Copilot is coming to the rescue of night‑owl spreadsheet authors: the AI can now explain the formulas buried in your workbook, breaking down what each part does and why the output looks the way it does — and it does this inside the sheet so you never have to leave your workflow...
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Microsoft’s decision to retire the popular Microsoft Lens (formerly Office Lens) mobile scanning app marks a significant change for millions of casual and enterprise users who rely on its fast, reliable capture and OCR workflows — the retirement begins on September 15, 2025, the app will be...
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document scanning
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lens retirement
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