Despite its shortcomings, ChatGPT is unquestionably one of the best AI tools on the market. It’s always ready for you to ask it something, and it pretty much always has the right answer. However, just because using ChatGPT is easy doesn’t mean it’s also the best or the fastest tool for the job.
It might not sound very intuitive, but there are instances in my workflows where Excel is actually the better (and faster) tool than ChatGPT. It’s not that ChatGPT can’t do the task at hand; it’s just that by the time I’ve typed a prompt, pressed enter, and got a response, Excel has already done it, multiple times over. ChatGPT can help you get over your spreadsheet fears, but it can’t quite replace Excel yet.
Excel’s best shortcut has nothing to do with the keyboard — it’s this box
Excel made things easier, I just never noticed.
Pivot tables still do the heavy lifting
Instantly summarize data without overthinking it
If you need to compare numbers to see performance or a trend, Excel is by far the easiest way to do so. For example, if you have a sheet with 2,000 rows — product names, regions, dates, and revenue, and you want to find out which region performed the best over the last quarter, just highlight the data, insert a PivotTable, set the region as row and revenue as value, and you’re done. You get an instant, interactive, and visual result right within the file you were already using.
Doing that in ChatGPT is a bit of a hassle. You have to write a prompt that describes what you want while explaining the file’s data to ChatGPT, which will already take longer than an Excel PivotTable. When ChatGPT is done processing your file, you don’t have a lot of control over how the data will come out. You’ll likely get a static table or a code snippet, and then figure out what to do with it. Besides, if you wanted to compare the data differently, you’d have to repeat the entire process.
Conditional formatting beats explanations
See patterns instantly instead of asking for them
Conditional formatting might feel like adding unnecessary flash to otherwise perfect data. However, once you start using it right, it’ll save you squinting at your spreadsheets for hours.
Let’s say you have a task tracker sheet with 100 tasks and their due dates. Figuring out which task is due when will be a nightmare, considering that
all text looks identical when not formatted in an Excel spreadsheet. Your best bet for quickly telling tasks apart is to use conditional formatting in Excel to create three rules using the TODAY() function. Anything due today turns yellow, anything overdue turns red, and upcoming tasks are highlighted in green. Once you’re done, your sheet will automatically highlight tasks, helping you spot what you need visually at a glance.
ChatGPT simply can’t do the same. It can tell you how to set up conditional formatting. You can copy the paragraph above, paste it in ChatGPT, give it the sheet you’re working with, and you’ll get step-by-step instructions on how to do the same. You could ask it to generate a script that applies those conditional formatting rules to your data. In that case, you’ll be working with Python in Excel, downloading the script, and running it every time you need to make a change. Not to mention, this will only work if your Excel installation supports Python.
Flash Fill feels like magic
Clean and transform data in seconds, no formulas needed
Excel is great at detecting data patterns and replicating them across your spreadsheet to save you work. Say you have a column full of full names, and you want the first names in the next column. You type the first name of your topmost entry, hit Ctrl + E, and Excel will fill the entire column based on the pattern it just inferred. No formula, prompt, or explanation required.
Doing this task in ChatGPT, once again, requires describing the pattern, including a data sample, and then waiting for a formula or Python snippet. And that’s before you’ve pressed a single key in Excel, because remember, ChatGPT can’t do that for you. By comparison, Flash Fill is embarrassingly fast. Whether you’re separating dates from timestamps, breaking codes apart, or anything else, Excel handles them without a single prompt.
Macros save you from repetition
Automate once — stop doing the same task forever
Not only can Excel perform tasks incredibly quickly, but it can also automate repetitive tasks for you. For certain tasks, especially ones that require a specific sequence of actions, Excel macros can replace formulas.
For example, if you do the same sequence of tasks on a spreadsheet every week, like opening the file, pasting new data, formatting the header, applying a formula, and exporting, Excel’s Macro Recorder can record and store the entire sequence to automatically run when you press your shortcut key of choice.
I picked up basic VBA scripting and Excel suddenly got much better
I tried basic VBA and instantly cut down repetitive work in Excel.
ChatGPT can’t run inside Excel, meaning it simply can’t replicate this feature. It can write a macro for you in VBA code, which you can then run in Excel. However, ChatGPT rarely gets it right in one prompt, meaning you’ll be going back and forth between Excel and ChatGPT to debug your script.
AI isn’t the answer to everything
None of this means ChatGPT is bad at spreadsheet-related tasks. It’s genuinely excellent at writing VBA from scratch, debugging formula logic, or even for generating nested IF statements you’d spend minutes writing in seconds. ChatGPT with Excel makes sense as a guide that tells you how to use Excel’s many native tools and features to their best capacity, and which features are best for what you need to do.
So the answer isn’t to become an Excel purist. It’s to stop reaching for ChatGPT out of habit, especially when Excel has a faster and easier way of solving that problem.
- OS
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Windows, macOS
- Supported Desktop Browsers
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All via web app
- Developer(s)
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Microsoft
- Free trial
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One month
