Python for Excel, 2nd Edition

Appendix B. Copilot in Excel

Ever since OpenAI announced ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, the world hasn’t been quite the same. ChatGPT is a chatbot that relies on artificial intelligence (AI) and that has an answer to almost anything—​although not always the correct one. More specifically, ChatGPT uses generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), meaning it can process and create content such as text, images, or sound. To work with text content, including code, GenAI relies on a so-called large language model (LLM). In simple terms, an LLM is a neural network that is trained on vast amounts of text data.

While Microsoft is one of OpenAI’s investors, they maintain their own AI offering under the name Copilot. The first stable version of Copilot in Excel was released in September 2024, so it’s still in the early stages, and Copilot in Excel will likely evolve at a rapid pace.

This appendix gives you an overview of the different Copilot versions from Microsoft and a general introduction to prompt engineering. We’ll also see what the requirements are to be able to use Copilot in Excel and how to use it in agent mode.

The Copilot Family

Copilot is Microsoft’s brand name for its suite of AI tools and consists of Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and GitHub Copilot:

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is a web-based AI assistant. On Windows 11, it is also available as a preinstalled app. You can upload Excel workbooks and ask Copilot questions about its data. In this form, Microsoft ...