Creating Formulas and Functions Faster with Copilot

- [Instructor] Formulas and functions are at the heart of Excel, and if you thought that AI would keep you from ever needing to write them yourself again, well, you're halfway there. Let's explore how Copilot can significantly streamline the process of crafting formulas and functions. Refer to the Exercise File 02_01_formulas_functions to follow along. Again, to get started, I'll click inside the table, navigate to the Home tab, and launch Copilot. The first step I'll take is to click the option which allows me to add a formula column. Let's see what we can do here. I'm not loving the Status column being entirely in uppercase, so I'll request a column formula to convert it to proper by typing: "Add a column to convert Status to proper case." Now here, I am given a PROPER function to create the new column. Again, you may retrieve something different. I will click Explain formula to learn more. And if you're satisfied with the results, click Insert column. Let's continue to experiment. The Size column indicates measurements in ounces. I aim to convert this to cups. And I'm not sure about the exact conversion rate and wonder if Copilot can help, so I'll make the following request: "The Size column is in ounces. Could you convert it to cups and label the new column as Size (cups)?" Here, I'm given another column to insert. You may be asked by Copilot to create the formula yourself or given another approach. So again, be flexible and experiment with the results given to you by Copilot. Let's insert column. And lastly, I want to aggregate data from one of the columns. For example, I wish to determine the average price across all items. By prompting Copilot with something like: "What is the average of price?" A suggested PivotTable emerges. Now, here we have the opportunity to add this PivotTable to a new sheet. Copilot is telling us it is not able to find the price, but the results were given here. Again, this is a new and somewhat experimental feature of Excel, so make sure to use your best judgment in formulating and evaluating your results here. Let's add to new sheet. And the result is returned as a PivotTable. It's worth noting that Copilot often favors PivotTables over standard formulas and functions to deliver results. So again, be flexible and make sure you have your Excel basics down with both formulas and PivotTables. In conclusion, while your days of manually crafting formulas aren't entirely behind you, the process will undergo a transformation. With Copilot, much of the heavy lifting is handled, enabling you to oversee operations akin to a supervisor monitoring an assistant adept in both formulas and PivotTables.