Let Excel Do the Work: How to Use AI to Finish Your Tasks in Seconds

AI in Excel today means Copilot: an assistant built into the workbook that takes a request in plain language, then adds columns and formulas, formats tables, builds charts and pulls insights from your data, making the changes directly in the file. You open it from the floating button in the corner of the workbook (lower-right in the English interface, lower-left in Arabic) or with Alt+C or F6, not from the Home tab that older guides describe. The cheapest route for one person is Microsoft 365 Personal at 42.99 SAR a month or 429.99 SAR a year on Microsoft's Saudi store. The one caution: review everything it produces, because Microsoft itself says it can make mistakes.

What is AI in Excel?

You type what you want into a side pane and the assistant does it. According to Microsoft's official get-started page (updated 24 September 2026), it can manage worksheets, apply conditional formatting and data validation, generate formulas, charts and PivotTables, answer questions about your numbers, highlight, sort and filter, and import data from other workbooks.

What used to be marketed as Agent Mode is now part of the normal experience as Edit with Copilot, and became the default on 22 April 2026. It runs on Claude models from Anthropic and GPT models from OpenAI, with an Auto option that picks the model for you; choosing one by hand requires a commercial Copilot subscription or Microsoft 365 Premium.

Which daily tasks should you hand over?

• Hand over, with a quick check: formatting monthly reports, a profit-margin column, pulling a value from another sheet, a chart for a management meeting, summarising customer feedback, and explaining a formula inherited from a former employee.
• Use it, then check every number yourself: payroll, invoice amounts and VAT, price lists, and any file going to a customer or a government body. Here the assistant writes a first draft; it does not make the decision.

How does it work? Three modes and direct edits

There are three modes; editing is the default. Microsoft's Arabic help page translates the first two only:

• Allow editing (السماح بالتحرير): the default. It changes the file directly and suits multi-step jobs such as merging sheets.
• Plan (التخطيط): it shows a step-by-step plan to review before anything changes; the right choice for sensitive files.
• Chat only: it analyses and answers without touching the file.

Any change you save is visible to everyone with access to the file. Three ways back: Undo straight after the change; Version History (محفوظات الإصدارات) to restore an earlier copy; and on the Review tab (مراجعة), Show Changes (إظهار التغييرات) to see what changed and who changed it. History is kept for up to 365 days, per the change-history page. The input box also has a Stop button.

One condition people miss: it can only edit when Calculation Options (خيارات الحساب) is set to Automatic (تلقائي). To experiment without saving its changes automatically, Microsoft's tips page suggests turning AutoSave off.

How to use it, step by step (current as of October 2026)

Our worked example: a small shop keeps a monthly sales sheet with four columns: Product in A, Quantity in B, Price in C and Region in D. Wherever a step needs a request, we show the exact words to type and the kind of result to expect.

1. Check that your subscription includes it. The home plans Personal, Family and Premium do. On a work account, check the label in the app: "Copilot Chat (Basic)" means it is not available to you inside Excel, "Microsoft 365 Copilot (Basic)" means standard access without a paid licence, and "Premium" or "Pro" means a paid licence with priority access.
2. Save the file to OneDrive in a modern format. Save the sales sheet as an .xlsx workbook (.xlsm and .xlsb also work) and give every column a clear header. Licensed business users can work on local files since March 2026, but a footnote on Microsoft's US store page for home plans still asks for AutoSave and OneDrive, so OneDrive is the safe route for everyone. Then set Calculation Options to Automatic before you ask for any edit.
3. Open the assistant from the floating button. Microsoft calls it the Copilot Dynamic Action Button (زر الإجراء الديناميكي Copilot): lower-right in the English interface, lower-left in the Arabic one. Shortcuts: Alt+C on Windows, Cmd+Control+I on Mac, and F6 everywhere. To put it back on the ribbon, right-click it and choose Move to ribbon (نقل إلى الشريط). No button at all? Check your plan: it only appears for people who have access.
4. Pick a mode. On a first try, or with a sensitive file, choose Plan to see what it intends, then switch to Allow editing once you trust it. Use Chat only when you just want an answer.
5. Choose a suggestion or type your request. Hover over the button for ready-made suggestions (the up arrow key moves between them), or type your own request in Arabic or English. In our example, type: "Add a column called Revenue that multiplies Quantity by Price for each product." What to expect: a new column E with a formula filled down the rows, plus a short explanation of how it works.
6. Review, then apply. For highlighting, sorting and filtering, the assistant describes the change first and you select Apply. Type: "Highlight the lowest values in the Quantity column." Once you approve, the slowest-selling products show in a different colour.
7. Ask about meaning. Switch to Chat only and type "Which region had the highest and lowest sales?", then "Are there any outliers or anomalies in this data?" It answers in the pane, sometimes with a chart or PivotTable, without changing the file. For an actual PivotTable, go back to editing and ask: "Create a PivotTable with the sum of Revenue, with Region in rows and Product in columns."
8. Check before you rely on it. Work out two or three rows by hand, then ask: "Explain the formula in cell E2." If you do not like the result, use Undo or Version History.

What to ask: ready prompts by task

Examples from Microsoft's pages on getting insights and visualising data, in Microsoft's own wording:

Four tips from Microsoft's guidance

• Be specific and name the columns or ranges: "Highlight the lowest values in the Quantity column" beats "show me the problems".
• Start broad, then refine with follow-up questions such as "Now show the same result for each product" instead of rewriting the whole request.
• Cover the four ingredients that Microsoft's prompt guide uses to describe a good prompt: goal, context, source and expectations.
• Type "new topic" when you switch to a different task.

Which plan gives you AI in Excel, and what does it cost in Saudi Arabia?

Riyal prices are as shown on Microsoft's Saudi store on 6 October 2026; the page does not say whether VAT is included. Business plans are on Microsoft's business pricing pages with Saudi Arabia selected, in US dollars per user per month excluding tax; the approximate riyal figure in brackets uses the official rate of 3.75 SAR to the dollar.

One person or a team?

Working alone on files with no customer personal data? Personal is the cheapest start. Family cannot extend the assistant to staff, since its AI belongs to the owner alone; Premium suits daily heavy use. A team handling company and customer data belongs on work accounts: check each employee's label, then buy the add-on only for people who live in spreadsheets. One-time Office purchases do not include the assistant, and Office 2021 support ends on 13 October 2026, a good moment to review your licensing. If your team also uses the general assistant app, see our guide to Microsoft merging its two Copilot apps. Note: Microsoft's page does not state the monthly AI credit allowance for Personal and Family, and when credits run out the feature may pause until your allowance resets.

Limits and mistakes to expect

• It can be wrong, and Microsoft says so, advising against it for sensitive finance, legal or medical decisions. So payroll, invoices and prices stay under human review.
• The evidence in numbers: on SpreadsheetBench, a set of 912 tasks, Microsoft reported in September 2025 that Agent Mode reached 57.2% accuracy against 71.3% for humans, per the chart in its post. It is dated and predates current models, but it shows review is not optional.
• Arabic is supported; English works better. The assistant was trained mostly on English sources, so if an Arabic request disappoints, try it in English.
• Skills are English-only, require an English display language, and are mostly finance-specific, such as lbo-model, according to the skills page.
• The =COPILOT() function is gone. It was retired on 14 September 2026, yet many tutorials still teach it. Old results stay as cached values, but any cell that recalculates returns #NAME?; Microsoft's function page points you to the side pane instead.
• Devices: all three modes are complete on Windows, Mac and the web; on iPad, iPhone and Android, editing is limited or still rolling out.

Your data: work account or personal account?

On a work account: Microsoft Learn's privacy page says prompts and responses are not used to train foundation models, that the assistant only surfaces what the employee is already allowed to view, and that use falls under the Data Protection Addendum (DPA). But prompts and responses are logged and your IT admin can view them, and web search queries go to Bing without user identifiers but outside the DPA.

On a personal account: according to Microsoft's privacy page for home plans, prompts and file contents are not used for training either, but a personal account gives your company no oversight or audit trail.

Where is the data processed, and what does the PDPL say?

In its data residency definitions, Microsoft lists Saudi Arabia as a future local region. It is not covered by the Copilot residency commitment (the UAE and Qatar are) nor among the 15 countries in the in-country processing offer, and non-EU queries may be processed in the US, the EU or elsewhere. On 31 August 2026 Microsoft announced that its Saudi Arabia East region will open in November 2026, without naming Microsoft 365 or Copilot.

The Personal Data Protection Law, according to SDAIA's guide, covers processing of residents' personal data even from abroad, and SDAIA's transfer regulation requires a risk assessment in specific cases. Whether using the assistant counts as such a transfer is a legal question SDAIA has not addressed; ask your adviser. The practical rule: customers' personal data goes into the assistant only through a company work account.

The bottom line

The assistant inside Excel is now genuinely practical. Treat it like a fast new hire: clear instructions, Plan mode first, and a check on every formula. Start with repetitive, low-risk tasks, choose the plan by who will actually use it, and keep money, payroll and customer data under human eyes. When the file itself becomes the problem, here are the signs a spreadsheet has stopped being the answer; that is where we at Origami build the systems that pick up where the spreadsheet ends.

Sources: Microsoft Support (Get started with Copilot in Excel, FAQ, Dynamic Action Button, COPILOT function), Microsoft Learn privacy and data residency pages; Microsoft's Saudi store and business pricing page (prices checked on 6 October 2026): https://www.microsoft.com/en-sa/microsoft-365/buy/compare-all-microsoft-365-products; and SDAIA's PDPL guide and transfer regulation.