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Ask Flex / Excel and AI

Ask Flex

How do you use AI to automate Excel?

"How do I use AI to automate Excel? I do the same twelve clicks every Monday."You asked Google. Flex answered.
Flex the robot at his sunny office desk scratching his head at a big spreadsheet on his screen where one cell flashes a red error, while little Clawd peeks out from behind the monitor holding up a sticky note with an equals sign on it
Flex's short answer

Start by writing down the steps you repeat, in order, the way you'd explain them to a new hire. AI can turn some of those steps into formulas that update on their own, and tell you which ones still need a person.

✱ Flex's tips

Write the steps down first.

1

Write the steps down

Every click, in order. That's the hard part.

2

Formulas first

Totals, lookups and dates can update alone.

3

Keep one clean copy

A blank version you copy each month.

4

Bigger than formulas? Ask IT

Check what your company allows.

Try this in your own Claude or ChatGPT

Every [week or month] I do the same thing in Excel. Here are my steps, in order: [list them]. Tell me which steps a formula could do for me, and give me those formulas with where they go. Then tell me which steps still need me, and why.

Before you paste work stuff into any AI, check what your company allows.

If the same spreadsheet job comes back every week, that's exactly the work to hand off. The free Lab shows you how to hand that work to Claude.

Free tool

The Formula Finder

Pick what you're trying to do, in plain words. Get the formula, what it means, and how to check it.

Find my formula
Flex the robot at his sunny office desk scratching his head at a big spreadsheet on his screen where one cell flashes a red error, while little Clawd peeks out from behind the monitor holding up a sticky note with an equals sign on it
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✱ What people ask
How do I automate formulas in Excel?

Put the formula in once and fill it down, or turn your list into a table so new rows pick it up.

How do I use AI to automate Excel tasks?

List the steps, then ask which ones a formula can take.

How do I automate Google Sheets?

Same start: write the steps down, then ask which ones a formula can do. Flex has a page on it.

✱ More from this pile: Excel and AI
How do you use AI in Excel?How do you use AI in Excel for free?Can AI do Excel formulas?Is there an AI Excel formula checker?How do you use AI in Excel for data analysis?What is ChatGPT for Excel?Does Claude AI work with Excel?How do you use AI in Excel with Copilot?Is there AI for Google Sheets?How do you use AI to create an Excel spreadsheet?Is it worth it to learn Excel?What are the best ChatGPT prompts for Excel? The Formula Finder
From Nikki's blogFlex tells you how. Nikki tells you what it felt like. Read it on Clawd and Me. Read it →

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