Microsoft Excel is an extremely powerful spreadsheet tool that you can use for data crunching, as well as crafting lovely Valentine's messages. In the past few months, Redmond has added support for the Python programming language in Excel, along with tons of other capabilities. Now, the company is going one step ahead by adding advanced data ingestion and analysis techniques in Excel.

Copilot for all your Excel needs

In a blog post, Microsoft announced that Excel Insiders can leverage the power of Copilot to reference data from various other sources such as the web, internal content stored in Word and PDF files, organizational material, and data from another Excel file.

You can utilize Copilot to query the web directly to gain access to public data and enrich your existing content. Similarly, you can reference content present in a Word file and paste the results into a table. You can even ask Copilot about organizational information such as questions related to your firm's hierarchy. But perhaps most importantly, you can lean on Copilot to pull data from another Excel file stored in your organization's cloud repository in a "refreshable" state. Of course, this can already be done through Power Query, but Copilot brings a certain level of automation, along with a natural language interface that may help those who are not very tech-savvy.

Using these capabilities is as easy as going to the Home tab and clicking on Copilot. That said, these features are only available for Beta Channel users on Windows and Mac who are at least on Version 2503 and Version 16.87, respectively. There are a couple of limitations though, as importing of refreshable data is only supported for Excel files containing tables on SharePoint or OneDrive, and the fact that referencing existing workbook data and external data simultaneously is not fully supported yet. It is currently unknown when these new Copilot features will be available generally, but it's important to note that you will need a Copilot license, along with a stable internet connection.