On 12 October 2026, Microsoft’s Excel Blog published “Beyond Analysis: Copilot Gets to Work in Excel” by Brian Jones. It describes new Copilot features for bringing in, cleaning and sharing data. Here are the confirmed facts, followed by our view for data analytics learners.
Confirmed facts (from Microsoft’s post)
- Clean data: Copilot can identify potential issues, such as “USA”, “US” and “United States” in the same column, incorrect data types, inconsistent formatting or duplicate records, explain what it found and recommend corrections. Microsoft says it began rolling out to general availability this month.
- Get data: instead of building Power Query queries yourself, you describe the data you need, where to pull it from and how it should be shaped, and Copilot does the work. Microsoft says it rolls out to general availability mid-October and can be accessed via the web app.
- Skill builder: share your workflow, instructions, previous prompts or examples of completed work, and Copilot turns them into a reusable skill. It began rolling out to general availability this month.
- Skill recorder: show Copilot a recurring task as you do it, and it turns those actions into a reusable skill. Microsoft says it will be available in Insiders by the end of October.
- Interactive canvas: Copilot turns workbook data into an interactive report that stays connected to the workbook and updates as the data changes. It is currently available in Insiders.
- Microsoft notes that skill builder and skill recorder are subject to service capacity and usage limits.
Our view: what this means for data analytics learners
Clean data is the feature most learners will meet first, but it does not replace knowing how to clean data yourself. Interviewers still ask freshers to remove duplicates, fix text values and correct data types with formulas or Power Query. Treat Copilot’s suggestions as a checklist, then verify each fix.
Get data lowers the barrier to Power Query. Still learn what the generated query does: open the applied steps, read them and change one. When a refresh breaks, the analyst who understands those steps fixes it fastest.
Interactive canvas and skill recorder are still in Insiders, so do not build a portfolio project that depends on them yet.
A simple exercise: take a messy sales sheet, clean it yourself and note each step, then compare your list with what Copilot’s clean data suggests on an account that has Copilot. Write three lines on what each approach caught.
Want to learn Excel, SQL, Power BI and Python with Gen AI tools through live projects? See our data analytics course in Bangalore.
Source: Microsoft Excel Blog, “Beyond Analysis: Copilot Gets to Work in Excel” (12 October 2026, updated 16 October 2026). Checked on 22 October 2026.
