A spreadsheet assistant is an AI helper inside or alongside a spreadsheet that builds formulas, charts and summaries from plain-language requests.
In plain words
You type what you want, such as a summary by region, and the assistant carries it out with the spreadsheet's own tools: formulas, tables, charts and pivot tables. Microsoft's Copilot in Excel works this way and leaves the result editable. Google Sheets has an AI function, available on qualifying Google Workspace or Google AI plans, that you type into a cell to generate text from your data. You can also build your own by giving a model a code tool that reads CSV or Excel files.
A quick example
Google's help page shows a cell formula asking the AI to write a short slogan for an event using the details in cell A2.
Where you'll meet it
- Budgets, reports and quick data analysis.
- Cleaning and summarising data without writing code.
Related
Sources
- DocsGet started with Copilot in Excel, Microsoft Support · read 21 Oct 2026
- DocsUse the AI function in Google Sheets, Google Docs Editors Help · read 21 Oct 2026
- DocsCode execution tool, Anthropic (Claude Platform Docs) · read 21 Oct 2026
Checked by WhatIsAI against the sources above · 23 Oct 2026. Spotted an error? Report it.