Built-in AI: Gemini in Sheets and Copilot in Excel

Everything you’ve learned so far works with any AI assistant — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or others. But in 2025, both Google and Microsoft embedded AI directly inside their spreadsheet tools. These built-in features can do things external AI can’t: manipulate your actual spreadsheet, create charts on the spot, and access your live data.

Let’s explore what each platform offers.

🔄 Quick Recall: In the previous lesson, you built dashboards using formulas and manual chart creation. Built-in AI can accelerate that process — Gemini and Copilot can create charts, format cells, and insert formulas directly, without you copying and pasting from a separate tool.

Gemini in Google Sheets

Gemini is built into Google Sheets for all Workspace users (included free since January 2025). Access it by clicking the “Ask Gemini” spark icon in the top right corner.

What Gemini Can Do

Capability	Example Prompt
Generate formulas	“Create a formula that calculates commission at 10% for sales over $5,000”
Create tables	“Generate a project timeline table with Task, Owner, Start Date, End Date, Status”
Format data	“Add conditional formatting: green for values above target, red for below”
Insert elements	“Add a dropdown in column D with options: Pending, Approved, Rejected”
Analyze data	“What trends do you see in this sales data?”
Multi-step tasks	“Add a checkbox column, freeze headers, and sort by date descending”

Multi-Step Tasks: Gemini’s Superpower

Gemini’s standout feature is executing multiple actions from a single prompt. Instead of asking for each change separately:

Single prompt:

“Reformat this project tracker: add a ‘Priority’ dropdown with High/Medium/Low options in column E, create a formula in column F that calculates days between Start Date (C) and End Date (D), apply conditional formatting to column F (red if over 30 days, yellow if over 14, green otherwise), and freeze the first row.”

Gemini executes all four actions at once. No switching between menus.

✅ Quick Check: Where do you access Gemini in Google Sheets? (Answer: Click the “Ask Gemini” spark icon in the top right corner of the sheet.)

Gemini’s Data Generation

Gemini can also create data from scratch:

Prompt:

“Generate a sample dataset of 20 employees with columns: Name, Department (Engineering/Marketing/Sales/HR), Start Date, Salary (range $50,000-$120,000), Performance Rating (1-5).”

This is perfect for testing formulas and building template spreadsheets.

Copilot in Excel

Microsoft Copilot is included with Microsoft 365 subscriptions (as of late 2025). Access it from the Home tab ribbon or the Copilot button in the toolbar.

What Copilot Can Do

Capability	Example Prompt
Formula suggestions	Start typing “=” and Copilot suggests formulas based on your data context
Data insights	“Show me the key trends in this data”
Chart creation	“Create a chart comparing Q1 vs Q2 sales by region”
Pivot tables	“Summarize this data by category and month”
Agent Mode	“Build a financial model with revenue projections” (multi-step)
Data formatting	“Highlight the top 10 values in column D”

Agent Mode: Excel’s Multi-Step Engine

Agent Mode in Excel plans, executes, and validates multi-step tasks directly in the grid. It shows you each step before executing, so you stay in control.

Prompt:

“Analyze this sales data: create a pivot table summarizing revenue by product category, add a column chart visualizing the results, and highlight the top 3 categories.”

Agent Mode breaks this into steps, shows you the plan, and executes each step with your approval.

The COPILOT Function

This is the most significant innovation: a formula that brings AI directly into cells.

=COPILOT("Summarize the trend in column B")

Unlike the sidebar (which gives one-time answers), the COPILOT function is a live formula. When your data changes, the output recalculates — just like SUM or AVERAGE.

Use cases:

=COPILOT("Categorize this product description: " & A2) — Auto-categorize text
=COPILOT("Is this email address valid? " & B2) — Data validation
=COPILOT("Translate to Spanish: " & C2) — Inline translation

✅ Quick Check: What’s the key difference between asking Copilot a question in the sidebar vs. using the COPILOT function in a cell? (Answer: The sidebar gives a one-time answer, while the COPILOT function is a live formula that recalculates when data changes.)

Built-in AI vs. External AI: When to Use Each

Scenario	Best Choice	Why
Quick formula in current sheet	Built-in (Gemini/Copilot)	Direct access, no copy-paste
Complex multi-criteria formula	External AI (ChatGPT/Claude)	Better at complex reasoning
Formatting and chart creation	Built-in	Can manipulate the sheet directly
Cross-platform formula	External AI	Can generate for any platform
Data strategy and planning	External AI	Better at multi-step reasoning
Batch text processing in cells	COPILOT function (Excel)	Live formula, auto-updates
Multi-step sheet restructuring	Gemini or Copilot Agent Mode	Executes changes directly

The best approach: use built-in AI for direct spreadsheet manipulation and external AI for complex formula generation and data strategy.

Practice Exercise

Try these in your spreadsheet tool:

Google Sheets users:

Open a sheet with data and click the Gemini spark icon
Ask Gemini to “create a summary of the data in this sheet”
Ask Gemini for a multi-step task: “Add conditional formatting to column C, create a dropdown in column D, and freeze the header row”

Excel users:

Open a workbook and click the Copilot button
Ask Copilot to “show me key insights from this data”
Try the COPILOT function: in a cell, type =COPILOT("Summarize " & A2) to process text

Key Takeaways

Gemini (Google Sheets) and Copilot (Excel) are built-in AI that manipulate your spreadsheet directly
Gemini excels at multi-step tasks from a single prompt
Excel’s COPILOT function brings AI into cells as a live, recalculating formula
Use built-in AI for direct manipulation; use external AI for complex reasoning and cross-platform work
Both are included free with their respective platform subscriptions

Up Next

In the final lesson, you’ll bring everything together: building a complete AI-powered spreadsheet system that combines formula generation, data cleaning, lookups, pivot tables, dashboards, and built-in AI features.