Foundation Route

How to Use AI in Excel to Stop Googling Formulas

AI can write Excel formulas, explain errors, clean messy data, and build table structures - all in plain English. Here's how to use it for real spreadsheet work instead of just asking what VLOOKUP does.

10 steps ~1h For all professionals Free

How to use AI in Excel means describing what you want in plain language and having AI generate the formula, fix the error, or build the structure. It's not about adding an AI plugin - you can do this with ChatGPT or Claude in a separate window. Professionals who use AI this way report cutting formula troubleshooting time by 70% and building new spreadsheet templates 3x faster than before. At aidowith.me, the Tables, Plans & Checklists route runs 10 steps in about 1 hour and covers exactly this: building real spreadsheet structures with AI, including trackers, plans, and dashboards. You'll describe what you need, handle formula errors with AI help, and build templates you can reuse. The route is live at so.aidowith.me and works for both Excel beginners and intermediate users who just want to go faster.

Last updated: April 2026

The Problem and the Fix

Without a route

  • You spend 20 minutes Googling an Excel formula that a good AI prompt would give you in 30 seconds.
  • You get a formula error and don't know how to fix it - and the internet gives you 5 different answers.
  • You build spreadsheet templates from scratch every time because you don't have a reusable system.

With aidowith.me

  • Describe what you need in plain English and get the exact formula - no Stack Overflow required.
  • Paste formula errors into AI and get a specific fix with an explanation of what went wrong.
  • Build reusable spreadsheet templates in one session using AI for structure, formulas, and formatting.

Who Builds This With AI

Marketers

Content, campaigns, and briefs done in hours instead of days.

Sales & BizDev

Prep calls, draft outreach, research prospects in minutes.

Managers & Leads

Reports, presentations, and team comms handled faster.

How It Works

1

Write your first AI formula prompt

You'll describe a real Excel task you do at work - a lookup, a conditional sum, a tracker - in plain English. The route shows you how to add the right context so AI gives you the exact formula, not a generic example.

2

Debug formulas with AI help

You'll paste a broken formula and an error message into AI and get a diagnosis and fix. This step alone saves most people 2-3 hours a month in frustrated troubleshooting.

3

Build a reusable spreadsheet template

In the final steps you'll use AI to build a complete tracker, plan, or checklist from scratch - structure, formulas, and formatting. You finish with a template you own and can reuse.

Use AI in Excel and Stop Wasting Time on Formulas

The Tables, Plans & Checklists route at aidowith.me: 10 steps, real spreadsheet tasks, reusable templates. About 1 hour.

Start This Route →

What You Walk Away With

Write your first AI formula prompt

Debug formulas with AI help

Build a reusable spreadsheet template

Build reusable spreadsheet templates in one session using AI for structure, formulas, and formatting.

"I used to dread building new spreadsheets. Now I describe what I need to AI and have a working structure in 15 minutes. I've built 6 templates this month."
- Operations coordinator, logistics company

Questions

Describe what you want in plain English, including context: 'I have sales data in column B and dates in column A. I want to sum sales for a specific month.' ChatGPT or Claude will give you the exact formula. The Tables, Plans & Checklists route at aidowith.me practices this on 5 real formula types.

Yes. Paste the formula and the error into ChatGPT or Claude with a description of what you expected. It'll diagnose the issue and give you a corrected formula with an explanation. This works for 90% of common Excel errors. The Tables, Plans & Checklists route at aidowith.me includes a dedicated debugging step where you practice this exact workflow on real formula errors so you're confident doing it on your own spreadsheets afterward.

Yes - most Excel formulas work in Google Sheets and vice versa, with minor syntax differences. The route at aidowith.me uses Google Sheets but covers both. Just tell the AI which platform you're on and it'll adjust the formula syntax. Functions like IMPORTRANGE and ARRAYFORMULA are Google Sheets-specific, while Power Query is Excel-only - for everything else, the formulas transfer and AI handles the syntax differences automatically.