ExcelAI for Sheets

ExcelAI for Sheets is a Google Sheets add-on that runs in a sidebar next to your spreadsheet. It gives you two ways to use AI where your data already lives: an Agent for plain-language spreadsheet work, and Bulk Tools for row-by-row processing across larger datasets.

Use it to ask questions about the active sheet, generate formulas, clean inconsistent values, translate or classify rows, extract structured fields from messy text, rewrite copy, reformat existing data, and write results back into your sheet after review.

Use cases

Everyday spreadsheet work

Use the Agent when you want to describe a spreadsheet task in natural language and let ExcelAI work with the current sheet context.

• Generate or troubleshoot formulas for lookups, conditional logic, text cleanup, dates, and calculations.
• Read the active selection or sheet structure before answering questions about your data.
• Write values or formulas back into selected ranges after you approve the proposed action.
• Adjust spreadsheet structure, such as creating sheets, inserting rows or columns, resizing rows or columns, or clearing ranges.
• Apply formatting such as background color, font color, bold, italic, number formats, and multi-step formatting changes.

Row-by-row bulk processing

Use Bulk Tools when you already know which columns should be read and where results should be written.

• Generate product descriptions, email drafts, summaries, ad copy, SEO titles, social posts, or reply templates.
• Translate text into a target language with optional instructions and glossary guidance.
• Classify support tickets, reviews, survey answers, leads, or feedback into your own categories.
• Extract fields such as names, emails, dates, amounts, order IDs, addresses, phone numbers, or SKUs from unstructured text.
• Rewrite existing text for tone, style, audience, format, length, grammar, or spelling.
• Reformat dates, phone numbers, addresses, capitalization, currency, lists, JSON, Markdown, CSV, and other structured outputs.
• Run a custom prompt over each row using column variables such as {{name}} or {{A}}.

Main features

Agent

The Agent is the chat experience inside the Google Sheets sidebar. You enter a prompt, choose a model, and ExcelAI gathers the active sheet and selection context before responding.

The Agent can read spreadsheet metadata, sheet names, selected ranges, and cell data through the Google Sheets add-on. Read-only tool calls can run automatically. Write operations use an approval flow so you can inspect the proposed change before anything is written into the sheet.

Agent workflows support:

• Plain-language prompts for spreadsheet questions and edits.
• Active sheet and active selection awareness.
• Streaming responses in the sidebar.
• Model selection for Agent tasks.
• Conversation history, new chat, cancel, and session recovery controls.
• Long-term preferences that can be reused across conversations.
• Approval cards for sheet edits, including action type, target range, before preview, and after preview.

Bulk Tools

Bulk Tools are form-based workflows for processing many rows at once. They are designed for repeatable column operations where each row should produce an output in one or more target cells.

ExcelAI currently includes seven Bulk Tools:

Bulk Tools protect existing work by skipping rows with empty inputs and skipping target cells that already contain results. Extract can write multiple fields for a single row and skips the row if any target result cell is already filled, which helps avoid partial overwrites.

Review before writeback

When an Agent action would modify your spreadsheet, ExcelAI shows an approval card before applying the change. The card summarizes what will happen, where it will happen, and what the affected cells look like before and after the proposed edit.

You can approve the action, approve and trust the current session, or reject it. If you reject the action, the sheet is not changed.

For value and formula writes, ExcelAI captures the previous values so the operation can be tracked with enough context for safer writeback handling.

Batch progress and retry

Bulk runs show a progress card while ExcelAI prepares rows, submits the job, waits for results, and writes outputs back to the sheet.

The progress card can show:

• Total rows.
• Rows ready to process.
• Successful rows.
• Failed rows.
• Selected model.
• Runtime and error details.

You can stop a running job, retry failed rows, retry writeback, or close the progress card after reviewing the outcome.

Which feature should you use?

As a rule of thumb, start with the Agent when the task is exploratory or involves multiple steps. Use Bulk Tools when the task is repeatable, column-based, and needs to run across many rows.

Why use ExcelAI in Google Sheets?

• Work directly inside Google Sheets without copying data into a separate AI chat.
• Let AI use sheet context, selected ranges, and column structure when answering.
• Automate row-by-row spreadsheet work without writing formulas for every task.
• Keep outputs organized in your chosen result columns.
• Reduce accidental overwrites with skip rules and approval flows.
• Choose available models for Agent and Bulk Tool workflows.
• Keep conversations, preferences, and model settings connected to your workspace.

What to try first

1. Open the ExcelAI sidebar from Google Sheets.
2. Ask the Agent a question about your current sheet or selected range.
3. Try a write action, review the approval card, and approve only if the preview is correct.
4. Run a small Bulk Tool job on a few rows before processing a larger dataset.
5. Use separate output columns so you can compare generated results with the original data.