Do spreadsheets make your head spin? You’re not alone, many of us feel overwhelmed by endless rows and columns of numbers. But with Copilot in Excel, you don’t need to be a data expert or know complicated formulas. Just type your question in plain English, and Copilot will do the heavy lifting for you. Whether you want to spot trends, create colorful charts, clean up messy data, or simply get a quick summary, Copilot is ready to help.

It’s like having a friendly assistant right inside Excel, turning your questions into clear answers and saving you time. Now, anyone can make sense of their data and get the insights they need, quickly and confidently.

The tips shared in this article is based on the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on (Business or Enterprise).

I know my current Copilot blogs have a lot of text and not many videos right now. That’s because I want to share practical prompts and examples you can use straight away. Where possible, I’m adding official Microsoft videos as extra resources to help you learn visually. In the future, I’ll create some custom videos, especially when I cover creative topics like PowerPoint and SharePoint. 😊

How Does Copilot Work in Excel?

Copilot is built into Excel for Microsoft 365 Business / Enterprise users. It works with your work account and only uses data you’re allowed to see. You can ask Copilot to summarize data, create charts, suggest formulas, and even clean up messy spreadsheets, all by typing simple instructions.

How to Give Copilot Clear Instructions

  • Be specific: “Summarize this dataset into key trends and insights.”
  • Ask for visuals: “Create a dashboard showing monthly sales.”
  • Request formulas: “How do I sum values that are greater than 0?”
  • Use everyday language: Copilot understands!

Prompt Examples

A) Summaries & Key Points (understand the data fast)

Goal: Get the “so what?” in plain language.

  • “Summarize this data into 5 key points for a manager.”
    Follow‑ups: “Make it shorter.” • “Add one risk and one opportunity.”
  • “Give me an executive overview of this sheet: sales by region, top performer, and one area to improve.”
    Follow‑ups: “Include a simple bullet list.” • “Limit to 120 words.”
  • “Explain this like I’m new: what are the main trends here?”
    Follow‑ups: “Add examples.” • “Remove jargon.”

B) Insights & Trends (see what’s going on)

Goal: Spot patterns and movement over time.

  • “Show the top 5 products by sales and tell me why they’re likely performing well.”
    Follow‑ups: “Include one chart.” • “Add a short explanation under the chart.”
  • “Identify year‑over‑year trends and call out any months with a big jump or drop.”
    Follow‑ups: “Highlight the jump in yellow.” • “Add a note on likely causes.”
  • “Compare this year’s results to last year and list 3 key differences.”
    Follow‑ups: “Turn that into a table (Metric, This Year, Last Year, Difference).”

C) Cleaning & Preparation (tidy the spreadsheet)

Goal: Remove mess so analysis is reliable.

  • “Clean up this sheet: remove duplicates, fix obvious typos, and standardize date formats.”
    Follow‑ups: “Show me what changed.” • “Undo the date changes only.”
  • “Find blank or broken entries and suggest simple fixes.”
    Follow‑ups: “Fill blanks with ‘Unknown’ and list them in a separate sheet.”
  • “Normalize product names that look similar (e.g., ‘A‑100’ vs ‘A100’).”
    Follow‑ups: “Create a mapping table of original → cleaned.”

D) Visualizations & Dashboards (tell the story with charts)

Goal: Turn numbers into pictures people understand.

  • “Create a bar chart comparing monthly revenue.”
    Follow‑ups: “Switch to a line chart.” • “Add data labels and sort descending.”
  • “Build a simple dashboard: total sales, top 5 products, sales by region.”
    Follow‑ups: “Add a slicer for quarter.” • “Use traffic‑light colors for performance.”
  • “Show a heatmap of performance by region and month.”
    Follow‑ups: “Use green for high, red for low.” • “Add a note explaining the scale.”

E) Formulas (get the right calculation without formula stress)

Goal: Let Copilot write or explain formulas for you.

  • “Write a formula to calculate year‑over‑year growth for each product.”
    Follow‑ups: “Explain how it works in one sentence.” • “Convert to percentages.”
  • “Create a formula to rank products by sales and mark the top 5.”
    Follow‑ups: “Turn the top 5 into a new table.” • “Color them light green.”
  • “How do I sum values greater than 0 only?”
    Follow‑ups: “Apply this to column D.” • “Ignore blanks.”

F) Forecasting & What‑If (plan ahead)

Goal: Estimate the future and test scenarios.

  • “Forecast next quarter’s results based on the last 8 quarters.”
    Follow‑ups: “Show best‑case and worst‑case scenarios.” • “Put the forecast in a new sheet.”
  • “What happens if prices increase by 5%? Show the impact on revenue.”
    Follow‑ups: “Run 3 scenarios: +3%, +5%, +8%.” • “Add a chart for each.”
  • “Estimate stock needs for next month given average weekly sales.”
    Follow‑ups: “Include a buffer of 10%.” • “List items likely to run short.”

G) Pivoting & Grouping (slice data the easy way)

Goal: Summarize by categories without building a complex pivot manually.

  • “Group sales by region and product, then show totals and averages.”
    Follow‑ups: “Sort by total sales descending.” • “Filter to the top 10.”
  • “Create a pivot summary: sales by quarter, with a grand total.”
    Follow‑ups: “Add % of total.” • “Show only Q3 and Q4.”
  • “List the top 3 customers per region.”
    Follow‑ups: “Export to a clean table (Region, Customer, Total).”

H) Anomalies & Quality Checks (catch issues early)

Goal: Find the oddities before they become problems.

  • “Highlight any outliers or unusual spikes/drops and suggest possible causes.”
    Follow‑ups: “Add a comment next to each outlier.” • “Ignore values below 10.”
  • “Check for negative numbers where they shouldn’t appear (e.g., quantities).”
    Follow‑ups: “List them and suggest corrections.”
  • “Spot missing relationships (e.g., orders with no customer ID).”
    Follow‑ups: “Create a fix‑list for the data owner.”

I) Plain‑Language Explanations (learn as you go)

Goal: Understand what the analysis means, no jargon.

  • “Explain this chart to a non‑technical audience in 3 bullets.”
    Follow‑ups: “Make it friendlier.” • “Add one action we should take.”
  • “Translate these numbers into a story: what’s good, what’s risky, and what we should do next.”
    Follow‑ups: “Keep to 100 words.” • “Add a call to action.”
  • “Turn this analysis into a short email I can send to my manager.”
    Follow‑ups: “Tone: professional, positive.” • “Add 1 next step.”

J) Quick Tasks (speed through common chores)

Goal: Rapid fixes and everyday requests.

  • “Clean up this spreadsheet and remove duplicates.”
    Follow‑ups: “Show how many were removed.” • “Keep the first occurrence.”
  • “Auto‑fill missing months between January and December.”
    Follow‑ups: “Set missing values to 0.” • “Flag rows I should review.”
  • “Create a ready‑to‑send report with total sales, top product, and a simple trend chart.”
    Follow‑ups: “Export as PDF.” • “Limit to one page.”

Tips for better results (non‑technical and practical)

  • Point Copilot at the right data: Select the range or table first, or say “Use Sheet ‘Sales 2025’, columns A–F.”
  • Be specific: Mention audience, format, and limits (e.g., “for managers,” “bulleted list,” “≤120 words”).
  • Iterate: Ask for “shorter,” “friendlier,” “add a chart,” “sort descending,” “highlight top 5.”
  • Stay safe: Use your work account, don’t paste confidential data into consumer tools, and review before sharing.
  • Keep it tidy: Good headings, consistent dates, and clear product names make Copilot smarter.

Everyday Wins

  • Summarize Data: “Show me the top-performing regions and visualize sales trends.”
  • Create Visuals: “Make a bar chart comparing quarterly revenue.”
  • Spot Issues: “Highlight anything unusual in this data.”
  • Formula Help: “Write a formula to calculate year-over-year growth.”

Safety First

  • Use Copilot with your work account for secure data handling.
  • Copilot follows your company’s security rules and permissions.
  • Always review sensitive outputs before sharing.
  • Don’t use consumer Copilot tools for company data.

Quick Team Exercises

  • Summarize a sales spreadsheet in 3 key insights.
  • Create a chart from quarterly data.
  • Clean up duplicates in a messy sheet.

Tips for Teams

  • Share prompt ideas on your intranet.
  • Nominate Copilot “champions” to help others.
  • Track improvements and celebrate time saved.

Microsoft Resources:

Other Copilot related blogs I’ve written:

“Build confidence, boost creativity, and let Copilot do the heavy lifting. Your journey from beginner to brilliant starts with one good prompt.”

Spoiler Alert!! I use Copilot to create my Blog Thumbnails and help fact check my articles / shorten / summarise paragraphs where needed. I also use Napkin.AI to create any infographics I use. Of course I can create my own images, and I ROCK at PowerPoint, but with Copilot I can do SO MUCH MORE, SO MUCH FASTER! I’ve always wanted an assistant, now I do. #WinningAtLife

Contact me:

Do you need help with your #Microsoft365 #Copilot journey? Contact me.

Please DO NOT contact me to publish blogs on your behalf, advertise on my site, endorse your product or solve a problem you have (that could have been solved by posting on an online forum). As part of the #Micosoft365 #Copilot #Community, we work really hard on content and support that we give back to you, for free – because we really do care. You are always welcome to leave (relevant) comments on my blogs / videos, and I’ll respond, as this way, others also get value from it. 

Stay awesome, keep learning, help others.