Most of us have used Excel in some way in our daily lives. But in today’s world of powerful language models powered by AI, are you still struggling with long Excel formulas or finding it difficult to use Excel efficiently? If yes, then ChatGPT is here to help. Whether you’re stuck on any Excel formula or want to automate repetitive tasks, ChatGPT acts as your smart assistant, saving you time and boosting your productivity. In this blog, we will explore 5 chatGPT excel hacks that can save your hours.
Table of contents
Everyday Excel Tasks
Before we jump into how ChatGPT can make your Excel life easier, let’s take a step back and look at some common tasks we often deal with in Excel:
- Data Cleaning & Preparation
- Writing Formulas
- Summarizing and Analyzing Data
- Data Visualization
- Shortcuts in Excel
Here, we’re covering only a few common everyday tasks in Excel. If you’re looking for a detailed overview of Excel and its various features, check out our free course Excel: From Beginner to Expert.
Prerequisites for ChatGPT Excel Hacks
For demonstration purposes, we’d be using the following dummy dataset:
Sample Excel Dataset for Experimentation
The data in the previous dataset has been populated specifically for cleanup, which would further highlight the effectiveness of our actions.
1. Data Cleaning & Preparation
Data cleaning is all about making raw, messy data into neat and usable data. This includes removing duplicates, fixing formatting issues, and getting the data ready for formulas or dashboards.
Let’s clean things up by removing duplicates and fixing formatting in our dataset.
Prompt: “Write an Excel formula or steps to clean the given dataset by removing duplicates and converting names to proper case.”
Just give the above prompt to ChatGPT, and it will give you step-by-step instructions to perform the actions in Excel. The response would be similar to the following:
Follow those steps in Excel to clean your data by removing duplicates.
That’s it! You now have a clean dataset with no duplicates, all by following ChatGPT’s guidance.
2. Writing Formulas
You don’t need to remember complicated Excel formulas like nested IFs, VLOOKUP with fallback, or conditional logic anymore. Just describe what you want to do, and ChatGPT will generate the exact formula for you.
Prompt:
“Create an Excel formula that checks if Age > 30 AND City is Delhi or Mumbai (ignoring case). Return ‘Eligible’ or ‘Not Eligible.’”
Simply give this prompt to ChatGPT and upload your dataset. It will respond with the right formula, which you can directly copy and paste into your Excel sheet to get the result you need.
And just like that, you’ll see the result instantly.
Pretty easy, right? No more struggling to recall long formulas. Just describe your task, get the formula, and you’re done. Quick, simple, and efficient with ChatGPT!
3. Summarizing and Analyzing Data
Whether you want to statistically analyze your data, like getting averages, counts, or category-wise breakdowns, ChatGPT makes it super easy. Just give it a simple prompt explaining what you need, and it will guide you with step-by-step formulas or instructions.
Let’s take this example: suppose you want to summarize the age of employees for each city in a dataset. You can do this in two ways: using formulas or a Pivot Table. Let’s try both approaches with the help of ChatGPT.
Prompt:
“Help me summarize the average age of employees in each city using Excel. Give me both a formula and a Pivot Table method.”
Share this prompt along with your dataset, and ChatGPT will respond with something like this:
Since we asked for both approaches, ChatGPT provides solutions using formulas as well as Pivot Table steps.
In this case, I followed the Excel formula method suggested by ChatGPT. But you can also use the Pivot Table method, which is explained step by step.
Simple and effective – ChatGPT has your back!
4. Data Visualization
Want to create bar charts, pie charts, or dynamic dashboards but not sure where to start? With ChatGPT, you can just describe what you need, and it will guide you step by step.
For example, say you want to visualize the number of people from each city using a pie chart. How do you do that in Excel?
Simply upload your dataset and prompt:
“How can I create a pie chart in Excel to show the number of people from each city?”
ChatGPT will give you a step-by-step guide to create the pie chart.
Just follow the instructions, and there you go! You’ve built your pie chart.
Pretty cool, right?
5. Shortcuts in Excel
Excel has countless formulas, and it’s tough to remember them all. Even if you somehow manage to memorize the formulas, remembering all the shortcuts is another challenge altogether. That’s where ChatGPT comes in. You can either ask ChatGPT for shortcuts related to a specific task or simply request a list of the most important ones to know.
For example, if you want to learn the top Excel shortcuts, just use a prompt like:
Prompt:
“Give me the top Excel shortcuts I should know to work in everyday Excel tasks?”
When you give this prompt to ChatGPT, you’ll receive a helpful response like this:
You will get this long list of shortcuts. You can download it as a PDF and keep it for future use. Or, you can simply ask ChatGPT for shortcuts anytime you need help with a specific task.
As you can see, ChatGPT has made our lives significantly easier by helping us utilize powerful tools like Microsoft Excel in a smarter, more convenient way.
Find More ChatGPT Excel Hacks Here
Now that you’ve seen how AI can make working with Excel so much easier, why not take it a step further?
If you’re looking for a free, certified course to master Excel from beginner to advanced or want to learn how AI and Excel together can make your work feel effortless, we’ve got just the thing for you. This short, hands-on, free course offers practical examples and step-by-step guidance to help you:
You can access the course here Excel: From Beginner to Expert
Conclusion
Hope you find these chatGPT excel hacks helpful. ChatGPT helps you handle everyday Excel tasks with ease. It saves you time, boosts your efficiency, and helps you get more done without the usual hassle. This is the smarter way to work in Excel, which is by integrating AI into your workflow. So the next time you’re stuck in a spreadsheet, don’t stress! Just ask ChatGPT. Smarter Excel work is just one prompt away, and with the help of AI, it’s at everyone’s disposal.
As an Instructional Designer at Analytics Vidhya, Diksha has experience creating dynamic educational content on the latest technologies and trends in data science. With a knack for crafting engaging, cutting-edge content, Diksha empowers learners to navigate and excel in the evolving tech landscape, ensuring educational excellence in this rapidly advancing field.
