Excel got a lot of new features in 2023, but some users think they disrupted the platform

2023 was a year of big changes for Microsoft Excel, and all the other Microsoft 365 apps. The data-managing platform received a lot of new features this year, that greatly changed the way users worked on the platform, while also letting them choose if they want to use some of these capabilities or not.

Here are the highlights of this year in Excel:

• Copilot in Excel
• Formula Suggestions
• Formula by Example
• Checkboxes
• Insert pictures into cells
• GROUPBY & PIVOTBY
• Python in Excel

By far the most important one is Copilot, which lets Excel users access data easier, summarize it in seconds, and also receive recommendations from the AI tool regarding formulas, next steps, and so on. Together with the other Microsoft 365 apps, Copilot was released to Excel recently, in November 2023, so some users might still be in the process of learning how to work with it.

All of the features mentioned above are more or less optional to users. To be more exact, they’re integrated into Excel, but users are free to use them only if they want to.

This means the experience of using Excel is not different for those who don’t want to use these features. However, some users see them as disruptive to the platform.

2023 was disruptive for Excel!

Excel user, on the official blog post

But was it? Let’s break it down.

Was 2023 a disruptive year for Microsoft Excel?

Well, as we explained earlier, Excel saw the release of important, possibly platform-altering features in 2023. The most important of them, Copilot, introduced AI to the platform, and with it, automatic commands that can be done in seconds, rather than hours.

In this regard, Excel has been indeed disrupted by the new features. However, ultimately, it is a matter of choice. While Copilot, and the other features, are integrated within the platform, users can opt not to use them.

So, while we agree that these features were disruptive to the platform, the disruption is and has been optional, and there are plenty of reasons to believe that for now, at least, Microsoft intends to keep it this way.

Sure, AI will slowly be integrated into every Microsoft service and product, and even the next Windows versions will be heavily AI-based, but the company will make sure the AI disruption will happen gradually, not at once.

What do you think about it? Let us know your opinion on the new AI-based capabilities in Excel. Are you happy about them or not?