![\"Egyptian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753968973_983_960x0.jpg\")
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Egyptian monthly accounts from the archive of a temple, similar to a modern spreadsheet in analysis. From the Louvre’s collection. (Photo by CM Dixon\/Print Collector\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Print Collector\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
This week, there is a very stark example of how things are changing in the race toward artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
This involves a household name model, and an administrative technology that\u2019s instantly familiar to most personal computer users.<\/p>\n
Namely, OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT and Microsoft Excel.<\/p>\n
The latter is a piece of Microsoft\u2019s traditional Office suite that\u2019s dominated basic software for a decade. Many millions of entry-level clerical workers have demonstrated their prowess with this top spreadsheet in order to get work. Microsoft built its brand on dominating parts of the market like this, while also pioneering the Windows-based GUI.<\/p>\n
But that was a while ago.<\/p>\n
Now, ChatGPT is taking over that piece of a new market that has to do with using the spreadsheet itself.<\/p>\n
Essentially, ChatGPT will make many of those basic clerical workers redundant.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because in addition to its existing capabilities, the model can now use Excel in highly cognitive ways \u2013 like a person.<\/p>\n
Data and Data Handling<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s contrast the new ChatGPT capabilities with what we already had earlier in the game. In ChatGPT\u2019s nascent development phase, the technology was helpful in aggregating data. Humans could put that data in a spreadsheet, conceivably, or use it for any number of other things.<\/p>\n
Then, ChatGPT became adept at writing basic Excel functions and formulas for us. Think of multipliers and sums, for example. ChatGPT itself came up with this instance:<\/p>\n
Old way: You had to know =IF(AND(A2>100,B2=”Yes”),”Approve”,”Reject”) by heart.
ChatGPT way: You just say:<\/p>\n
“If column A is greater than 100 and column B says ‘Yes’, mark it as Approve.”
ChatGPT instantly gives you the formula \u2014 correctly formatted.<\/p>\n
This was part of the vibecoding revolution, where programmers and symbolic analysts<\/a> realized that they could just use AI to do their work. Hard coding became a thing of the past \u2013 just ask the model to do it. And we were still ingesting this democratization of programming when brand new capabilities came along.<\/p>\n The New Way<\/p>\n The new ChatGPT, it is alleged, will be able to open a spreadsheet and populate it, and create results all on its own, without human oversight.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a new realm of automation that deserves its own accolades, and perhaps its own concern, too.<\/p>\n The Information reports <\/a>on these groundbreaking steps by OpenAI, which seem to encroach on Microsoft territory.<\/p>\n Apparently, part of the capability involves creating files that are compatible with MS Office tools Excel and Powerpoint, so that the user doesn\u2019t need these applications (or the corresponding licenses) to make something that\u2019s compatible with outside software.<\/p>\n \u201cNew tools under development will allow users to create and edit spreadsheets and presentations directly within ChatGPT, eliminating the need for Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, or any Microsoft software access,\u201d writes Vasudha Mukherjee<\/a> at Business Standard.<\/p>\n A Wired article by Reece Rogers last week goes into more detail. In the tech media\u2019s coverage of this, there\u2019s a real \u201cit slices, it dices\u201d feel to the reporting – as if the new ChatGPT will be that next way station toward office automation that some have been waiting for, and others have been dreading.<\/p>\n Documentation of Capability<\/p>\n Over at GitHub, you can read more in a readme file attached to project-related items.<\/p>\n