Dive Brief:
- Microsoft on Thursday announced new Copilot features aimed at boosting the artificial intelligence tool’s ability to handle a range of financial tasks in Excel.
- The updates allow teams to create repeatable “skills” for Copilot by defining instructions for routine tasks such as building financial models, closing the books, updating monthly reports and running variance analysis, Brian Jones, vice president of Microsoft's Excel Product Group, said in a blog post.
- “Instead of starting from scratch each time, a skill guides Copilot through the steps, applying the right structure and formatting, and helping produce an output that is easier to review, reuse, and trust,” Jones wrote.
Dive Insight:
The move comes amid growing competition in the office of the CFO software market, with vendors racing to bring new AI innovations into the space.
Last month, Workday said it was introducing a new AI capability aimed at streamlining financial planning and analysis by allowing users to generate model scenarios in minutes without the need for “data wrangling” across spreadsheets.
In an interview at the time, Ben Pierce, general manager of Workday Adaptive Planning, said the company was not positioning the new capability as a replacement for spreadsheets altogether, arguing that tools such as Microsoft Excel will likely remain part of finance workflows even as companies automate more analysis and data preparation tasks.
“I think people have said many times over the years, ‘We’re going to move people out of Excel,’ and I don’t think that ever happens,” he said. “Excel has a place. I use Excel all the time. But I think this will allow people to not have to use Excel for the complicated analysis that they need to do and be able to move a lot faster.”
In early 2025, the Association for Financial Professionals published a report saying that spreadsheets remained the dominant tool for FP&A professionals, with 96% of survey respondents using them for planning, 93% using them for reporting purposes on a daily or weekly basis and all using them on at least a quarterly basis.
On Thursday, Microsoft said it was rolling out a library of sample finance “skills” for Copilot in Excel, along with the ability for users to build custom versions.
The company also plans to let developers and partners create and distribute skills through Microsoft Marketplace and the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. The company said it was working with an initial group of partners including LSEG, Ramp, Rogo, Samaya AI, Velixo and Vena.
Copilot will also be able to adapt to user preferences in Excel over time, applying consistent formatting rules and structural conventions through personalization features and workbook-level rules that travel with the file, Jones said in his blog post.
He said the software giant is also expanding Copilot in Excel’s access to financial data, adding a broader set of third-party providers including CB Insights, Daloopa, FactSet, Morningstar, PitchBook and S&P Global.
