Microsoft equips Copilot in Excel with saveable workflows, a change preview, and direct financial data connections. Those who regularly edit a spreadsheet in the same way, such as during month-end closing, can now save this process once and reuse it with a click. Before each execution, Copilot also shows which cells will change.
Copilot remembers recurring work steps
So far, Copilot in Excel answered individual questions without remembering previous processes. With the new “skills,” a complete workflow can be described once and then retrieved as often as needed, as Microsoft announces. A skill guides Copilot through fixed, pre-defined steps, ensuring that the results are consistently structured and easier to understand.
Microsoft provides a number of ready-made example skills, such as for month-end closing, updating a report model, or a variance analysis between planned and actual figures. These templates can be used immediately without anyone needing to write a formula or script. Those who want to build their own skills tailored to their company can also do so. These individual templates are currently running in a beta version and are expected to be available to all Copilot customers in the coming weeks.
The advantage over a one-time ad-hoc request to Copilot lies in repeatability. A skill saved once will run automatically in the same pattern during the next month-end closing: with the same formulas, the same formatting, and the same order of work steps. This reduces the risk that different people build the same spreadsheet slightly differently each month, leading to errors.
A preview shows changes before they take effect
Many office workers are hesitant to let an AI handle established spreadsheets that have often been maintained for years, out of concern for altered formulas. This is where the second innovation comes in: Before Copilot executes a skill or a freely formulated task, it presents a plan. This plan outlines the affected worksheets, cell ranges, formulas, and open questions for the user.
Only after confirmation does Copilot implement the changes. Each individual adjustment can then be traced using the “Show Changes” function, making it clear which cell the AI has filled. Additionally, Copilot in Excel now also directly integrates external financial data services such as Morningstar, FactSet, PitchBook, S&P Global, CB Insights, and Daloopa. This allows current metrics to flow into the spreadsheet without copy-pasting. Here’s how to try out the new preview:
- Open Excel with an active Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
- Click the Copilot icon in the menu bar and enter a task, such as “Prepare month-end closing.”
- Read the proposed plan with the planned changes.
- Confirm execution or adjust individual steps.
- Check the result later using “Show Changes.”
Availability, costs, and access
Skills, plan previews, and data connections require an active Microsoft 365 Copilot license and complement an existing Microsoft 365 subscription. For smaller companies, the additional cost ranges from about 18 to 22 euros per user per month, depending on the type of contract, while enterprise customers negotiate their own terms. Without this additional subscription, the new features in Excel remain invisible.
The ready-made example skills and the plan preview are already available in Excel for the web, Windows, and Mac. Custom, self-written skills are still in a limited beta version and are expected to become generally available in the coming weeks. Microsoft does not specify a separate country restriction. Since Microsoft 365 Copilot is a regular part of the offering in Germany, the feature is likely to be usable here as well, even if Microsoft does not explicitly confirm this.
The actual value of the innovation lies less in the technology than in the trust it is meant to create. Those who can see in advance what changes in the spreadsheet do not have to trust the AI blindly. It will be crucial how reliably the automatically generated skills actually compute with complex, established company spreadsheets. It also remains to be seen whether the connected financial data providers are fully usable in Germany. Anyone processing company or customer data in Excel should check internal guidelines on AI usage before employing external data connections.
