Spreadsheet AI: Formulas, Cleaning, Analysis

Spreadsheets Are Powerful—If You Know How to Use Them

AI turns you into a spreadsheet power user without memorizing formulas or taking courses.

AI Formula Generation

The old way: Google formula syntax, read documentation, trial and error
The AI way: Describe what you want in plain English

ChatGPT prompt:

I have a spreadsheet with:
- Column A: Product names
- Column B: Sales Q1
- Column C: Sales Q2
- Column D: Sales Q3

I need a formula to:
[Describe what you want to calculate]

Platform: [Google Sheets / Excel]

Examples:

Calculate growth rate:

I need a formula to calculate the percentage growth from Q1 to Q3 for each product.

Conditional calculations:

I need a formula that sums sales only for products that sold more than 1000 units.

VLOOKUP made simple:

I need to match product names in Sheet1 Column A with prices in Sheet2 Column B and display the price in Sheet1 Column D.

Text manipulation:

I need to extract the first name from full names in Column A (format: "First Last").

Data Cleaning with AI

Common data problems:

• Inconsistent formatting
• Duplicates
• Missing values
• Extra spaces
• Mixed data types

AI cleaning prompts:

Remove duplicates:

My spreadsheet has duplicate rows based on email addresses (Column C).
How do I:
1. Find all duplicates
2. Keep only the most recent entry (based on Date column E)
3. Remove the rest

Platform: Google Sheets
Step-by-step instructions please.

Standardize formatting:

Column B has phone numbers in different formats:
- (555) 123-4567
- 555-123-4567
- 5551234567

I need all in format: (555) 123-4567

Give me formula to standardize.

Fill missing values:

Column D (Revenue) has some blank cells.
I want to fill blanks with the average of the 3 cells above and below.

How do I do this?

Statistical Analysis

AI makes stats accessible:

Descriptive statistics:

I have sales data in Column B (1000 rows).

Calculate:
- Mean (average)
- Median
- Mode
- Standard deviation
- Min and max values

Give me formulas for each.

Correlation analysis:

I have:
- Column A: Marketing spend
- Column B: Sales revenue

How do I calculate correlation to see if marketing spend affects sales?

Explain what the result means.

Trend analysis:

Monthly revenue data in Column B (12 months).

I need to:
1. Calculate month-over-month growth rate
2. Identify the trend (growing/declining/stable)
3. Forecast next 3 months

Step-by-step please.

Troubleshooting Errors

#REF!, #VALUE!, #DIV/0!—AI fixes them:

Error diagnosis:

I'm getting #REF! error with this formula:
[paste your formula]

My data structure:
[describe columns and ranges]

What's wrong and how do I fix it?

Formula debugging:

This formula isn't giving expected results:
[paste formula]

Expected: [what you want]
Actual: [what you're getting]

Help me debug.

Advanced Functions Made Easy

ARRAYFORMULA (Google Sheets):

I want to apply this formula to entire column without dragging:
[your formula]

How do I use ARRAYFORMULA?

IF statements:

I need a formula that:
- If Column C > 100, show "High"
- If Column C 50-100, show "Medium"
- If Column C < 50, show "Low"

Nested IF or IFS formula please.

INDEX-MATCH:

I need to look up values more flexibly than VLOOKUP.

Lookup value: Column A
Return value: Column D
From different sheet: "Products"

INDEX-MATCH formula please.

Data Validation

Ensure data quality:

I want to restrict Column B to:
- Only numbers
- Between 0 and 1000
- Show error message if invalid

How do I set up data validation?

Pivot Tables with AI

Pivot table guidance:

I have sales data:
- Column A: Product
- Column B: Region
- Column C: Sales Rep
- Column D: Revenue
- Column E: Date

I want pivot table showing:
- Total revenue by product and region
- Breakdown by month
- Top sales reps

Walk me through creating this.

Automating Calculations

Create dynamic formulas:

I want a dashboard cell that automatically shows:
- This month's total sales
- Updates when new data added
- Compares to last month

What formulas do I need?

Real-World Examples

Example 1: Sales analysis

Data: 10,000 transactions
Goal: Find top 10 products by revenue

I tried: [paste your attempt]
Problem: [what's not working]

Better approach?

Example 2: Budget tracking

I have:
- Budgeted amounts (Column B)
- Actual spending (Column C)

I need:
- Variance (difference)
- % of budget used
- Alert if over budget (red cell)

Formulas and conditional formatting?

Integration with AI Tools

ChatGPT for Sheets (add-on):

• Install from Google Workspace Marketplace
• Use =AI() function in cells
• Generate content, analyze data

Formula Bot:

• Natural language to formula
• Explains what formulas do
• Free tier available