5 AI Tools for Excel That Will Save You Hours Every Week

Originally published: September 28, 2025
Last updated: February 2, 2026

Excel is still the undisputed king of spreadsheets. But for many teams, it's also where time goes to die.

Studies consistently show that office workers spend an hour or more per day in Excel, with finance, operations, and analytics users often logging 12–15 hours per week inside spreadsheets (LondonLovesBusiness.com). And most of that time isn't spent making decisions—it's spent cleaning data, fixing formulas, rebuilding pivot tables, and copying the same data over and over again.

AI is finally changing that.

Today's AI tools don't replace Excel. They remove the most painful parts of using it—especially for business users who don't want to become spreadsheet engineers just to get answers.

Below are the 5 best AI tools for Excel and spreadsheet workflows, starting with the one designed to move teams beyond Excel altogether.

The Most Time-Consuming Excel Tasks

According to research from ProcessMaker, these are the top culprits:

Task	Time Impact
Manual data entry	Up to 10% of total work time, often 1,000+ copy-pastes/week
Cleaning messy data	Major bottleneck: removing duplicates, fixing formats, and gaps
Building PivotTables	Constant rebuilding and refreshing required
Charting & formatting	Time-consuming visual updates and style tweaks
Formula writing & debugging	Particularly complex formulas or nested logic trees

Every spreadsheet starts with a promise and ends with a dozen tabs, broken formulas, and the same data you pasted three times.

But thanks to AI, that's starting to change.

---

How AI Tools Automate Common Excel Spreadsheet Tasks

AI tools are doing for spreadsheets what calculators did for math. Whether you're cleaning data, building dashboards, or writing formulas, AI can now handle tasks that once took hours—with just a prompt.

Here's how today's AI tools can speed up those time sinks:

Traditional Excel Task	How AI Tools Automate It
Copy-paste data from sources	Auto-connect to data feeds or combine multiple spreadsheets
Remove duplicates, fix casing	Auto-clean and normalize datasets in one step
Build PivotTables	Generate and refresh with a plain-English command
Create charts and graphs	Suggest and auto-build the right chart for your data
Write advanced formulas	Convert natural language to Excel syntax (e.g. XLOOKUP, OFFSET/MATCH, LEFT/RIGHT/MID, SUMIF logic, nested IFs)

Using AI inside Excel often still requires advanced spreadsheet knowledge. Some tools remove formulas entirely—letting you analyze data without living in spreadsheets.

---

The 5 Best AI Tools to Speed Up Excel Work

Here are five powerful tools helping users automate, analyze, and visualize faster:

1. Querri

Best for: Business users and Excel power users who need clean, accurate analysis across messy spreadsheets, text data, and recurring workflows.

What it does

Querri lets you upload Excel files (and other data sources), ask questions in plain English, and automatically get clean, structured, analysis-ready data—even when spreadsheets include formatting issues or unstructured text.

In addition to numeric analysis, Querri can extract structured insights from free-text fields like notes, comments, and memos. For example, it can identify themes, urgency, sentiment, or required actions and automatically join those fields back to your data.

Once analysis is complete, you can export formatted Excel files, send results to Google Sheets, or continue with dashboards and automated workflows.

Why it works

Most real-world spreadsheets aren't analysis-ready. Excel exports often include headers, totals, blank rows, and multiple tables in a single sheet, while important context lives in free-text fields.

Querri automatically:

• Cleans and restructures messy Excel exports
• Detects and separates embedded tables
• Excludes footer totals to prevent double-counting
• Extracts structured data from unstructured text
• Joins extracted fields back to the original dataset

Processed files are cached, so subsequent loads are instant.

Working with results

Results are displayed in tables and charts with built-in refinement tools:

• Sort and format columns without re-running analysis
• View summaries, explanations, and underlying logic
• Refine individual steps using natural language
• Export, download, or add results to dashboards

Use it for

• Cleaning and validating messy Excel exports
• Extracting insights from notes and comments
• Combining spreadsheet data with qualitative signals
• Analyzing data using natural language instead of formulas
• Exporting clean, presentation-ready Excel files
• Automating recurring analysis and reporting workflows

If Excel is where your data starts, Querri supports the full path from raw files to reusable results.

---

2. Microsoft Copilot (Excel)

Best for: Everyday Excel users who want AI help with formulas, summaries, and basic analysis inside Microsoft 365.

What it does

Copilot assists with common Excel tasks using natural language, including:

• Generating and explaining formulas
• Building PivotTables and charts
• Summarizing tables and ranges
• Answering questions about workbook data
• Highlighting trends, outliers, and basic insights

All functionality is embedded directly in Excel as part of Microsoft 365.

Why it works

Copilot feels native to Excel and significantly lowers the learning curve for users who already live in spreadsheets. It's especially helpful for reducing time spent writing formulas or building pivots manually.

Limitations

• Works only inside Excel workbooks
• Limited support for multi-file or cross-system analysis
• Still requires structured, well-prepared data
• No built-in automation across recurring workflows
• Results are tied to Excel's underlying formulas and tables

Use it for

Faster formula creation, quick summaries, and basic analysis within Excel — rather than replacing spreadsheet-heavy reporting or data workflows.

---

3. Google Gemini (Sheets AI)

Best for: Teams working collaboratively in Google Sheets who want AI assistance with content, formulas, and lightweight analysis.

What it does

Gemini assists with common Google Sheets tasks such as:

• Text generation and rewriting
• Categorizing and labeling rows
• Filling cells contextually
• Generating and explaining formulas
• Summarizing selected tables or ranges
• Suggesting basic charts and insights

All interactions happen directly inside Google Sheets using natural language prompts.

Why it works

Gemini is especially useful for marketing, content, and operations teams already living in Google Workspace. It lowers the barrier to working with formulas and summaries without requiring deep spreadsheet expertise.

Limitations

• Focused more on assistance than full analytics
• Limited support for complex, multi-table analysis
• No automation across multiple files or data sources
• Relies on clean, well-structured Sheets
• Google Sheets only (not Excel-native)

Use it for

Collaborative, text-heavy spreadsheet workflows, quick summaries, and formula help — rather than deep Excel analysis or automated reporting pipelines.

---

4. GPTExcel / Formula Bot / SheetAI

Best for: Excel users who want help writing, understanding, or debugging formulas faster.

What they do

These tools convert plain-English prompts into:

• Excel formulas (including complex and nested logic)
• SQL queries or regex expressions (tool-dependent)
• Step-by-step explanations of existing formulas

They are typically used alongside Excel, not inside it, as a formula-generation assistant.

Why they work

They dramatically reduce the time spent Googling syntax, reverse-engineering formulas, or troubleshooting errors—especially for users who don't write formulas every day.

Limitations

• Formula-only focus
• No data cleaning or validation
• No joins, aggregation, or analysis across datasets
• No automation, dashboards, or reusable workflows
• Output still needs to be manually applied in Excel

Use it for

Faster formula creation and explanation—rather than automating Excel workflows or performing end-to-end data analysis.

---

5. Numerous.ai

Best for: Excel and Google Sheets users who want to automate repetitive, cell-level spreadsheet tasks using AI.

What it does

Numerous.ai is a spreadsheet add-in that lets you use AI directly inside cells to:

• Categorize and classify rows
• Generate or explain formulas
• Fill or transform columns using natural language
• Apply AI logic across large ranges of cells

It works by calling AI-powered functions directly from Excel or Google Sheets.

Why it works

Numerous.ai shines when you need to apply the same AI-driven transformation across thousands of rows—especially for categorization, labeling, or text-heavy data.

Limitations

• Spreadsheet-only approach
• Function-based (logic lives inside cells)
• Limited support for multi-table or multi-source analysis
• No workflow automation or scheduling
• Not designed for dashboards or reporting pipelines

Use it for

Automating repetitive spreadsheet tasks and applying AI logic at scale inside Excel or Google Sheets—rather than replacing spreadsheet-heavy analysis workflows.

Key Takeaways: AI Tools for Excel Users

Insight	What It Means for Excel Users
Excel work is dominated by manual cleanup	Most spreadsheet time is spent fixing data, not analyzing it
AI tools reduce repetitive Excel tasks	Cleaning, formulas, pivots, and charts can now be automated
Not all AI Excel tools are equal	Some enhance Excel; others replace fragile workflows entirely
Formula-based tools still require Excel expertise	AI helpers don't always eliminate spreadsheet complexity
Workflow-based AI tools go further	Tools that clean, join, analyze, and export data reduce Excel dependency
Clean exports matter as much as analysis	Being able to export polished Excel files keeps teams productive
The best AI tools fit real-world spreadsheets	Messy exports, totals rows, and embedded tables must be handled automatically

Which AI Tool Is Right for Your Excel Workflow?

If You Need To…	Best Tool Type
Write or debug Excel formulas faster	GPTExcel / Formula Bot / SheetAI
Get help inside Excel with formulas and pivots	Microsoft Copilot
Collaborate on text-heavy spreadsheets in Google Workspace	Google Gemini (Sheets AI)
Automate repetitive cell-level spreadsheet tasks	Numerous.ai
Clean messy Excel exports and analyze them accurately	Querri
Extract insights from notes, comments, or text fields	Querri
Combine multiple spreadsheets and data sources	Querri
Export clean, presentation-ready Excel files automatically	Querri
Replace fragile spreadsheet workflows entirely	Querri

The Bottom Line

AI is finally giving spreadsheet users the upgrade we've needed for decades.

Whether you're tired of manually formatting rows, cleaning messy Excel files, or debugging complex formulas, modern AI tools for Excel and spreadsheets can cut hours of manual work down to minutes.

And it's not just about speed—it's about replacing repetitive spreadsheet work with automation, so you can spend more time on analysis and decisions that actually move the business forward.