Microsoft Excel in 2026 still does what it has always done best: turn messy data into decisions — but it now does that with cloud sync, AI assistance, and extensible analytics that make old spreadsheets look like museum pieces.
Excel's tabular model — rows, columns, and formulas — arrived in 1985 and became the lingua franca of business. That simple abstraction made Excel both accessible to non-programmers and extensible enough for power users to build models, automation, and entire workflows. Those design primitives remain the core reason the app persists across decades and platforms.
Over the last few years Microsoft has shifted Excel from a file‑first desktop application to a cloud‑connected, AI‑assisted platform. The modern Excel in Microsoft 365 focuses on collaboration (OneDrive and SharePoint co‑authoring), data preparation (Power Query and Power Pivot), and intelligence (Copilot, Agent Mode, and Python integration). This evolution reframes Excel as a workplace hub rather than just a local calculator.
Enterprises and teams can extract real productivity gains by adopting the new features deliberately: pilot AI on safe datasets, enforce governance and auditability, and continue training the human skills that make spreadsheets trustworthy. For anyone whose work involves numbers — from freelancers and small businesses to finance and engineering teams — Excel remains the baseline tool to learn and to measure against.
Caveat: vendor surveys and vendor‑generated statistics (for example on emotional attachment or usage hours) can be directional but are sometimes biased by sample selection and product positioning — always request methodology before treating those numbers as definitive.
Excel today is less about beating new entrants on convenience and more about offering a reliable, extensible canvas where humans and AI can co‑author financial logic, governance‑ready reports, and reproducible analyses. That is why a 40‑year‑old app still quietly runs a huge portion of how organizations make decisions.
Source: AD HOC NEWS Microsoft Excel Review: Why This 40-Year-Old App Still Runs the Modern World
Background: the spreadsheet that never quite died
Excel's tabular model — rows, columns, and formulas — arrived in 1985 and became the lingua franca of business. That simple abstraction made Excel both accessible to non-programmers and extensible enough for power users to build models, automation, and entire workflows. Those design primitives remain the core reason the app persists across decades and platforms.Over the last few years Microsoft has shifted Excel from a file‑first desktop application to a cloud‑connected, AI‑assisted platform. The modern Excel in Microsoft 365 focuses on collaboration (OneDrive and SharePoint co‑authoring), data preparation (Power Query and Power Pivot), and intelligence (Copilot, Agent Mode, and Python integration). This evolution reframes Excel as a workplace hub rather than just a local calculator.
What changed — and why it matters
Cloud-first, not file-first
Excel now defaults to cloud storage and real‑time co‑authoring when used with Microsoft 365 and OneDrive/SharePoint. That removes the "Final_v9_REALLY_FINAL.xlsx" email dance for most team workflows and surfaces versioning, presence, and AutoSave as first‑class features. For teams, that one change alone reduces mundane errors and merge headaches that historically cost hours each week. Evidence of Microsoft’s cloud‑first design is visible in the product documentation and collaboration features rolled into Microsoft 365.Built-in data engineering: Power Query and Power Pivot
Excel’s self‑service ETL (Power Query) and in‑memory modeling (Power Pivot/Data Model) let analysts ingest, clean, join, and model data without exporting to separate tools. These capabilities are not trivial add‑ons: they change the workflow from manual copy‑paste to repeatable, refreshable pipelines, which is vital for reliability and auditability in finance and operations. Power Query has documented limits and best practices that make it a production‑worthy ingestion path for many teams.AI inside the workbook: Copilot and Agent Mode
Excel’s AI story has moved from helpful suggestions to agentic assistance. Copilot in Excel offers formula generation, chart and PivotTable suggestions, and conversational data summaries; Agent Mode extends this by planning and executing multi‑step tasks inside the workbook under human supervision. These features are designed to preserve editability — Copilot outputs native formulas and objects so results remain inspectable and modifiable. Microsoft’s documentation and product blogs describe how Copilot and Agent Mode are being delivered and licensed across Microsoft 365 plans and preview channels.Python becomes a first‑class citizen
Excel no longer limits advanced analytics to VBA and nested formulas. The "Python in Excel" capability embeds Python code directly in the grid (managed in secure cloud containers), letting users run Pandas, Matplotlib, and other libraries inside workbooks while keeping results native to Excel. That lowers the friction between analyst notebooks and enterprise reporting. Microsoft’s rollout notes and technical guidance define platform, compute, and licensing constraints for Python usage.Reality check: what Excel still does best
- Raw calculation power at scale: Desktop Excel handles large in‑memory models and complex formula networks that break or bog down lighter web tools. The official worksheet limits — 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns — remain industry‑leading for file‑centric analysis.
- Composability and auditability: Formulas, named ranges, dynamic arrays, and PivotTables make logic visible within the grid; colleagues can inspect, trace, and tweak calculations without reading code. This is a practical audit advantage in finance and compliance workflows.
- Ecosystem and skills: A vast library of templates, tutorials, community forums, and training programs mean organizations rarely struggle to find Excel expertise. That human capital is a migration cost many projects underestimate.
Technical verification — key facts you can rely on
- Excel's worksheet limits are 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns; workbook behavior beyond that remains constrained by those limits and system memory. This hard limit is documented in Microsoft's official Excel specifications.
- Copilot in Excel is available to qualifying Microsoft 365 plans and offers capabilities to generate formulas, analyze data, and suggest visualizations. Agent Mode (the multi‑step agent) is available in specific preview/Frontier programs and requires appropriate Copilot licensing or Microsoft 365 Premium in supported markets. Availability differs by channel and geography. Consult admin licensing and Insider channels for specifics.
- Python in Excel runs inside secure cloud containers and is available to eligible Microsoft 365 users with varying compute tiers (standard vs premium). Platform parity has progressed toward web and Mac, but mobile clients (iPad/iPhone/Android) still lack full Python execution support. Microsoft’s availability and licensing pages give the granular rules.
- Power Query supports authenticated connections and a wide set of connectors; administrators and authors should understand the authentication model and security best practices when connecting to enterprise sources. Power Query’s connector and authentication documentation is the authoritative guide.
- Microsoft changed Forms → Excel syncing in 2024–2025 to a new mechanism; web‑based sync arrived first and desktop sync has been progressively restored in supported builds, but organizations experienced migration friction and should validate version/build compatibility for their teams. Microsoft’s Forms data sync blog and community posts outline the migration timeline and practical impacts.
Strengths: why Excel still runs the modern world
1. Versatility at every scale
Excel is a one‑stop canvas: quick budgets, ad‑hoc analyses, and enterprise financial models all live in the same mental model. That reduces handoffs and shortens the time from idea to insight.2. Powerful, discoverable tools for non‑programmers
Power Query and recommended PivotTables let users perform ETL and summarization without writing SQL or Python. Copilot lowers the barrier further by translating plain English into formulas and visualizations, turning complex tasks into approachable assistant‑driven workflows.3. Enterprise integration and governance
Excel integrates with Power BI, Dynamics, SharePoint, and the rest of Microsoft 365, allowing Excel to act as both a staging ground for BI and a final delivery vehicle for auditors and regulators. For IT, that simplifies some governance problems: one vendor stack, centralized identity, and enterprise update channels.4. Community and learning economy
From the Excel World Championship to lively subreddits and thousands of micro‑tutorials, the skill network around Excel is robust. Training new hires or running upskilling programs is practical and cost‑effective compared with building internal expertise around niche tools.Risks, caveats, and governance traps
AI outputs require human validation
Copilot and Agent Mode can accelerate work but may produce incorrect transformations or misinterpret business rules. Treat AI‑assisted edits as drafts that require peer review and audit trails; automated outputs should never replace formal reconciliation in regulated contexts. Microsoft itself warns that these tools are aids, not replacements for human verification.Data residency and model routing
Agentic features often depend on cloud routing and third‑party model providers. Organizations with strict data residency or compliance needs must validate routing policies, tenant configuration, and DLP controls before enabling Copilot or Python compute. Power Query and Python in Excel documentation emphasize secure credential storage and connection best practices.Subscription and version fragmentation
Microsoft’s cadence favors Microsoft 365 subscribers; perpetual Office/LTSC customers get fewer feature updates and a shorter roadmap for new AI integrations. That means organizations using Office 2021 or LTSC may miss newer capabilities (Python in Excel, Agent Mode, some Copilot features) unless they migrate to subscription channels. Microsoft’s license and lifecycle pages document what each purchasing model includes.Platform parity is improving — but not complete
Excel for Windows typically leads in feature parity; web and Mac build parity have narrowed but still lag for certain advanced add‑ins, VBA/macros, and some preview AI experiences. Mobile clients remain constrained for heavy workloads. For mission‑critical models, desktop Windows remains the safest execution environment for now.The skill‑erosion paradox
As AI generates formulas and automations, junior analysts may rely on Copilot without learning foundational spreadsheet skills. Teams must balance adoption with training to avoid a drift toward opaque, unvalidated worksheets that no one fully understands. Community discussion and vendor surveys have raised this concern repeatedly.Excel vs the alternatives — a practical comparison
Excel vs Google Sheets
- Google Sheets: excellent for lightweight, real‑time collaboration and simple automations.
- Excel: superior for heavy modeling, large‑scale data, advanced functions (dynamic arrays, XLOOKUP) and enterprise integrations. Many teams use Sheets for quick sharing and Excel for heavyweight workflows.
Excel vs Airtable/Notion/No‑code databases
- Airtable/Notion: friendlier UIs for relational, record‑centric work and project management.
- Excel: unmatched for flexible calculation logic, nested formulas, and ad‑hoc financial modeling. Use case determines the right tool; conversion often involves tradeoffs between structure and computational expressiveness.
Excel vs Power BI / Tableau
- BI tools: better at interactive dashboards, governed extracts, and enterprise visualization.
- Excel: remains the staging ground — analysts prepare and test models in Excel before publishing to BI. Many teams retain Excel as the “last mile” for reconciliations and what‑if scenarios.
Practical recommendations for teams and IT
For IT leaders: a governance starter kit
- Inventory high‑value workbooks: identify files used in reporting and regulatory processes.
- Pilot AI features on sanitized datasets: evaluate Copilot/Agent Mode on non‑sensitive copies first.
- Set DLP and tenant controls: limit what Copilot and connected experiences can access.
- Enforce audit trails and retention: require Agent Mode to emit a step log and preserve snapshots.
- Update procurement: include AI data residency, compute limits, and auditability clauses in MS 365 contracts.
For analysts and power users: practical adoption steps
- Start small with Copilot: use it for formula generation and chart suggestions, but verify outputs and document assumptions.
- Embrace Power Query for ETL: move manual cleaning to queries that refresh automatically and reduce brittle copy/paste.
- Use Python in Excel where appropriate: for advanced analytics, but follow shared libraries and code reviews to avoid hidden dependencies and security issues.
- Maintain formula literacy: teach INDEX/MATCH/XLOOKUP, dynamic arrays, and formula auditing as part of onboarding to prevent over‑reliance on AI.
Migration notes: when to keep Excel and when to move on
- Keep Excel when models require heavy numerical computation, ad‑hoc scenario testing, or integration with legacy systems and auditor expectations.
- Consider specialized BI or database platforms when you need centralized governance, high‑frequency streaming analytics, or interactive dashboards for large audiences.
- Hybrid is the pragmatic default: Excel for exploration/preparation and a BI platform for persistent reporting.
Final verdict
Microsoft Excel in 2026 is not the clunky desktop relic many recall. It is a living, cloud‑aware, AI‑augmented workspace that still excels at turning spreadsheet chaos into actionable insight. The combination of Power Query, PivotTables, Python integration, and Copilot/Agent Mode makes Excel more approachable and more powerful — but not risk‑free.Enterprises and teams can extract real productivity gains by adopting the new features deliberately: pilot AI on safe datasets, enforce governance and auditability, and continue training the human skills that make spreadsheets trustworthy. For anyone whose work involves numbers — from freelancers and small businesses to finance and engineering teams — Excel remains the baseline tool to learn and to measure against.
Caveat: vendor surveys and vendor‑generated statistics (for example on emotional attachment or usage hours) can be directional but are sometimes biased by sample selection and product positioning — always request methodology before treating those numbers as definitive.
Excel today is less about beating new entrants on convenience and more about offering a reliable, extensible canvas where humans and AI can co‑author financial logic, governance‑ready reports, and reproducible analyses. That is why a 40‑year‑old app still quietly runs a huge portion of how organizations make decisions.
Source: AD HOC NEWS Microsoft Excel Review: Why This 40-Year-Old App Still Runs the Modern World
