Microsoft Excel is adding Python for extra power — boosted by Copilot

Excel is about to get even more powerful

News By Craig Hale published 18 September 2024

Microsoft has announced plans to integrate Python into excel as part of its latest Copilot AI push.

The move, part of the company’s broader expansion of its Microsoft 365 Copilot suite, is designed to boost productivity to giving workers access to advanced tools that can be controlled through natural language input.

Python integration will allow workers to perform complex tasks, like data analysis, forecasting, risk assessment and machine learning, without the need to write code.

Excel gets AI-powered Python

Microsoft hopes that by enabling users to carry out these more advanced tasks from within its spreadsheet software, Excel can become a better tool for modern data science.

A demo video shared in the announcement confirmed workers can overwrite the Python code to tweak as necessary.

Jared Spataro, Corporate VP of AI at Work for Microsoft, commented: “It’s like adding a skilled data analyst to the team.”

The tool, Copilot in Excel with Python, is currently in public preview.

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