- Excel AI updates give it reusable skills and real-time data integration
- Microsoft knows that financial professionals are an untapped sector of the market
- User demand is responsible for what tools Microsoft will add next
Microsoft has announced a new update to Copilot in Excel aimed specifically at finance professionals, positioning the spreadsheet as an AI-powered tool for financial modeling, forecasting and reporting.
OpenAI and Anthropic are already proving that this area could be a lucrative business model, targeting both financial and legal services with their own domain-specific offerings, and Microsoft has become the latest.
The company has proudly proclaimed that Excel has been the go-to tool for finance professionals for decades, hoping that this AI-driven transformation will cement its position for decades to come.
Rather than delivering AI that is useless and irrelevant to users, Microsoft emphasized that its users “shape it as much as they use it, telling us where it fails.”
Skills are the focus of this latest update: predefined, repeatable workflows, such as closing boots and refreshing a monthly report, so users can generate accurate insights without having to configure them every time. Customers can develop their own skills or choose from a library of common skills, and soon, partners will also be able to offer their own skills through Excel like LSEG, Ramp, Rogo, Samaya AI, Velixo and Vena.
And for companies looking to leverage external data, direct integrations with third parties such as CB Insights, Daloopa, FactSet, Morningstar, PitchBoot and S&P Global extract insights in real-time, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual data extractions.
Importantly, Microsoft continues to position its AI tools as a colleague to AI, not a human replacement, comparing these particular Excel upgrades to a “trusted analyst” who makes “transparent and reviewable” changes.
But although they offer native AI integration, Claude and ChatGPT already have their own Excel add-ons.
The latest Copilot AI updates are now available for M365 Copilot users, with a continued rollout of custom skills and partner-developed skills over the coming months.
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