Since ChatGPT was publicly launched in late 2022, businesses across all industries have employed the site and other AI-driven tools to assist in everything from content creation to data analysis, decision making, workflow automation, even legal compliance.
The latest trend is to use AI to help them understand spreadsheet-based reports. ChatGPT for Excel, a powerful AI-powered add-on for the Microsoft Excel application, leverages OpenAI's ChatGPT to automate tasks, extract insights, and streamline data management with features like AI-powered tables, data translation, and formula generation.
Automating Excel with AI
Leveraging natural language processing (NLP), ChatGPT lets users interact with their Excel files in a conversational manner whether they are analyzing a large dataset, writing complex formulas, or simply cleaning up data.
An intuitive, user-friendly interface allows users to simply type a question or enter a command in plain language—for instance, “What were the average sales last quarter?” or “Create a pivot table showing sales by region.” ChatGPT interprets the request and performs the task, analyzing the data and generating relevant calculations to provide an answer or create the necessary output. There is no need for the user to manually input complex formulas or learn complicated Excel features.
The data analysis provides critical insights that might otherwise take significant time and effort or require proficiency with the application. For example, ChatGPT can quickly summarize key statistics of large datasets like averages, sums, and totals, or identify trends or anomalies in the data, ensuring users are armed with accurate and relevant information and helping them focus on what matters most.
Additionally, ChatGPT for Excel can help create complex formulas, clean up data, and help with error detection and troubleshooting. For instance, if you’re receiving unexpected results in your Excel file you can ask ChatGPT to check the formulas or potential problems in the data; the tool will identify common mistakes such as incorrect references, circular references, or logical errors and suggest fixes to get you back on track.
One of the most popular features of ChatGPT for Excel is its ability to assist with the creation of pivot tables and data visualizations. You simply describe what you need—for instance, a pivot table showing total sales by product category and region—and ChatGPT will generate the requested item and even suggest ways to best analyze the data.
Whether you’re looking to automate repetitive tasks, interpret complex datasets, or simply improve your Excel skills, ChatGPT for Excel is an innovative tool that provides valuable support in a way that’s intuitive and easy to use. By leveraging AI-powered natural language processing to make data analysis more accessible and efficient, ChatGPT for Excel is a true game-changer all Excel users, regardless of experience or skillsets.
Installing ChatGPT into Excel
Integrating ChatGPT for Excel into your existing application is easy. The following (highly summarized) instructions are compliments of Geeks for Geeks.
First, open your Excel application. Under the Home tab, find the Add-ins or Office Add-ins option. If you can’t find Add-ins on the Home tab, try looking under Insert. (Note: to install ChatGPT, your version of Excel needs to support add-ins; this feature is available in Microsoft 365 and Excel 2016 or later).
Click on the Add-ins box. This opens the Add-ins store, where you can manage all your previously installed add-ins or find new apps to install. If ChatGPT for Excel is not found in the initial drop-down list, simply browse or search for ChatGPT for Excel.
Once you’ve found the official ChatGPT software, click on it to open its details page. Click Add or Install to integrate the tool with Excel. Ensure you have the necessary permissions if prompted.
Once the add-in has been installed, go back to the My Add-ins section and locate the ChatGPT for Excell in your list of installed tools. Click on the app to launch it; the ChatGPT for Excel interface should appear, ready to assist with your Excel tasks. It’s that easy.
Using ChatGPT to Analyze Your OnFulfillment Reports
While ChatGPT for Excel is an interesting and innovative new tool, you’re probably wondering what it has to do with OnFulfillment. Good question. Here’s the answer: you can use this new app to analyze your OnFulfillment reports and spreadsheets to help you more effectively and efficiently manage your inventory to maximize budgets and minimize spending.
Through your online portal, OnFulfillment offers myriad reports that allow you to view, from multiple perspectives, the various materials you have in inventory within our facilities. All of these reports can be exported into Excel to make them more portable and for archival purposes.
Using the ChatGPT for Excel could save you considerable time when analyzing these reports and while providing unique insights that will help you make the most of your existing resources.
Looking for examples? Here is a just a handful of suggestions for ways you can use ChatGPT for Excel to extract even more value from your OnFulfillment reports. (Disclaimer: OnFulfillment does not encourage nor endorse the sharing of personal information on ChatGPT or the internet. Before you use Chat GPT for Excel to analyze our reports, be sure to remove any columns that include names, e-mail addresses, or any other identifiable personal data.)
- Identify which of your client departments and/or user groups spend or order the most. This information will help you determine how to more equitably allocate your marketing materials budget among the teams.
- Learn which products, materials, or branded promotional items are ordered the most (and the least) from your corporate store. More popular products should be considered for more frequent reorders, while less popular products might need a price cut, or even get tossed or donated, to save on storage costs.
- Know where your products are going. If you are filling a substantial number of international orders, it may be time to consider moving some inventory to an overseas warehouse to save on shipping costs. OnFulfillment allows you to host inventory at both our U.S. warehouse and facilities in Europe and still order them all from the same web portal. Having inventory overseas not only saves shipping costs, it also reduces customs red tape while helping you circumvent certain international tariffs.
- Determine which print-on-demand items are being ordered the most. If a certain POD product is generating a lot of interest and activity, it may be time to consider printing that item in bulk and making it an inventory item to save money in the long term.
- Find which banners and displays are getting used the most. If a particular banner or backwall is being reserved more frequently than others and you anticipate a particularly busy tradeshow season, it might be worth ordering more of those items. That way you won’t have disappointed users who can’t get a popular item because the only ones available are still out in the field.
- Understand which shipping methods are used the most. If you notice costs are up because employees are using expedited shipping methods, it may be time to remove those options (permanently or temporarily) for repeat offenders to encourage better planning and execution.
- See which months are the most active. This can help you anticipate when shipping costs and order processing fees will spike and plan accordingly. It will allow you to strategically plan when to order or reorder products to avoid potential shortages.
Making the Most of Your OnFulfillment Reports
ChatGPT for Excel can help you get the most out of your OnFulfillment investment by providing insights or analysis that you might otherwise miss. And all it takes is adding a simple download to your Microsoft Excel application.
Want to learn more about how OnFulfillment can help you maximize your marketing fulfillment budget? Fill out our contact us form to request a meeting.
