From the course: Microsoft Copilot Essentials by Microsoft Press

Natural language queries - Microsoft Copilot Tutorial

From the course: Microsoft Copilot Essentials by Microsoft Press

Natural language queries

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Once your data is in Excel, you shouldn't have to wrestle with pivot tables and complex formulas just to ask a simple question. This learning objective teaches you to query your data conversationally and let Copilot surface the patterns, charts, and follow-up questions you didn't know to ask. This is where Excel finally becomes accessible to everyone, not just formula experts. You ask questions in the language you think in, and Copilot translates them into calculations and visuals. Type questions like, what is the trend in Q3 cells, directly in Copilot. No need to remember trend functions or chart wizard steps, just ask the question, and Copilot interprets your data and shows you the answer. CoPilot generates formulas, charts, and pivot tables from your requests. Depending on what you ask, CoPilot might create a simple sum, a complex XLOOKUP, or a full pivot table with slicers. Follow-up questions let you drill deeper without starting over. After CoPilot shows you Q3 sales trends, ask, which product category drove the biggest increase? It maintains context from your previous question. CoPilot suggests related questions you might not have thought to ask. After answering your question, CoPilot proposes follow-ups like, would you like to see this broken down by region? CoPilot works best when your data has clear headers and a clean structure. CoPilot reads your column headers to understand what each field means. Clean data is still the foundation of good analysis. CoPilot isn't a replacement for your judgment. It's a drafting partner that accelerates the journey from question to insight. What you do after Copilot generates something matters just as much. Insert Copilot-generated charts and tables directly into your workbook. When Copilot creates a chart or pivot table, you can insert it with one click. It becomes a normal Excel object you can format and update. Edit the formulas Copilot creates. You stay in control. Copilot generates formulas, but you own them. Review what it wrote, tweak the logic if needed. Never accept a formula you don't understand for critical decisions. Use Copilot to validate your work. Check if this formula is correct. Paste a complex formula you wrote and ask Copilot to review it. It catches common errors like mismatched ranges and circular references. Combine Copilot queries with your existing workflows. Copilot doesn't have to take over your entire process. Use it for the parts where you get stuck. Export insights to Word or PowerPoint for reporting. Copilot and PowerPoint can pull in key tables and insights from your Excel workbook to create polished first drafts. Pro Tip. Fabrikam's operations team uses Copilot to generate trend charts, then exports to PowerPoint with one click. The entire reporting cycle takes 90 minutes instead of a full day. you

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