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Copilot in Excel: Data Analysis for Beginners in 3 Hours

Name: Copilot in Excel: Data Analysis for Beginners in 3 Hours
Rating: 4.6 (383 reviews)

Use Microsoft Copilot in Excel to answer business questions, clean messy data and build reports in plain English

Created byIan Littlejohn

Last updated 9/2026

English

English [Auto],Korean [Auto],

What you'll learn

Ask Copilot in Excel plain-English questions about your data and get answers you can act on in seconds
Summarize, classify and extract information from unstructured text that Excel formulas cannot handle
Build running totals, rankings and percentage contributions without writing a single formula
Clean and transform messy data files that arrive in the wrong shape
Create charts, conditional formatting and table summaries straight from a question
Complete five guided projects using realistic Sales, Finance and HR data
Understand the structure of a new data set before you analyze it, so your answers hold up

Course content

8 sections • 46 lectures • 3h 18m total length

Introduction to the Course2:24
Meet your instructor and see what Copilot in Excel can do in three hours: write formulas, analyze a table, read unstructured text and cleanse messy data.
Benefits and Issues of Copilot in Excel4:43
The benefits and the limits of Copilot in Excel - what it does well, where it gets things wrong, and what that means for how you use it.
Licencing Requirements1:51
The licensing you need for Copilot in Excel: which Microsoft 365 plans include it and what to check before you start.
About the Course1:23
How to get the best from the course: setting the video quality to full HD, changing the playback speed to suit you, and where to go for Udemy support and your certificate.
Download the Training Data Files0:06
Download the five training files - the sales data, the messy sales data, the cleanse data, the formula examples and the text analysis demo.
Overview of Copilot in Excel6:01
An overview of Copilot in Excel: where it sits in the ribbon, what it can see in your workbook, and how a prompt becomes a result.
Correctly Structuring Data4:31
Structure your data so Copilot can work with it: a proper Excel table, clean headers and consistent columns.

Introduction to Formulas with Copilot in Excel1:14
What this section covers: writing formulas with Copilot - calculated fields, date functions, IF logic, and asking Copilot to explain a formula.
Calculated Fields7:23
Ask Copilot in Excel to write a calculated field, then check the formula it produces before you trust it.
Date Functions5:04
Ask Copilot for date functions - pulling parts out of a date, or working out the gap between two - and check the result.
IF Conditional Logic5:16
Ask Copilot to build IF conditional logic, and refine the prompt until the conditions are right.
Explain Formulas4:03
Use Copilot to explain a formula you did not write, so you can inherit a workbook and understand what it does.

Introduction to Analyzing Data with Copilot in Excel1:15
What this section covers: analyzing a table with Copilot - key metrics, summaries, top performers, trends, graphs and highlighting.
Key Metrics9:11
Ask Copilot in Excel for the key metrics of a data set, and see how it reports them back.
Your turn: get the key metrics0:15
Your turn: get the key metrics out of the sales data with Copilot.
Walkthrough: the key metrics exercise5:49
Walkthrough of the key metrics exercise: the prompts used, and how to check what Copilot returned.
Table Summaries7:41
Ask Copilot to summarize a table by a category - the quickest route to a grouped view.
Your turn: build the table summaries0:18
Your turn: build the table summaries from the sales data with Copilot.
Walkthrough: the table summaries exercise3:51
Walkthrough of the table summaries exercise: the prompts, and refining them when the first answer is not right.
Top Performers and Outliers7:28
Use Copilot to find the top performers and the outliers in a data set.
Trends8:22
Ask Copilot to find the trends in your data over time and describe what is moving.
Creating Graphs8:19
Ask Copilot to create graphs from your table, and adjust them when the first chart is not the one you wanted.
Highlighting Key Data6:19
Use Copilot to highlight the key data with conditional formatting, so the exceptions stand out.
Advanced Calculations6:10
Push Copilot further with advanced calculations, and see where it needs help to get them right.

Introduction to Understanding Data Structures0:55
What this section covers: understanding your data before you analyze it - descriptive and exploratory analytics, and finding the insight.
Descriptive Analytics8:54
Run descriptive analytics with Copilot: what the data contains, how it is distributed and what shape it is in.
Exploratory Analytics8:05
Run exploratory analytics with Copilot: probing the data with questions and charts before committing to an analysis.
Insight from Data6:21
Turn Copilot's output into insight: what its answers actually mean, and the questions to ask next.

Introduction to Analyzing Unstructured Text Data1:06
What this section covers: analyzing unstructured text with Copilot - summarizing themes, classifying and extracting values.
Summarizing Themes in Text7:47
Ask Copilot to summarize the themes in a column of free text, such as comments or reviews.
Classify and Categorize Text9:35
Ask Copilot to classify and categorize text into your own categories, including sentiment.
Extract Text Data7:19
Use Copilot to extract specific values out of free text into columns of their own.
Insights from Data4:59
Turn the text analysis into insight: what the themes and the sentiment are telling you.

Introduction to Cleanse and Transform0:42
What this section covers: cleansing and transforming data with Copilot before you analyze it.
Transformations - Part 17:57
Transform data with Copilot, part 1: reshaping columns and fixing the structure of a table.
Transformations - Part 27:11
Transform data with Copilot, part 2: the transformations that need more than one prompt to get right.
Cleanse Data6:08
Cleanse a messy data set with Copilot: blanks, duplicates and inconsistent values.
Your turn: cleanse the data0:28
Your turn: cleanse the messy data file with Copilot.
Walkthrough: the cleanse data exercise5:38
Walkthrough of the cleanse data exercise: the prompts used, and how to check nothing was lost.

Introduction to Projects0:26
What the projects are: five end to end briefs, each with its own data file and PDF, to work through with Copilot on your own.
Project 1 Workforce Analysis1:09
Project 1, workforce analysis: use Copilot on the HR data to build the formulas and foundations the brief asks for.
Project 2 Support Ticket Review1:04
Project 2, support ticket review: use Copilot to analyze support ticket performance and report what it shows.
Project 3 Customer Sentiment1:00
Project 3, customer sentiment: use Copilot to classify and summarize product reviews into a sentiment picture.
Project 4 Sales Dashboard1:04
Project 4, sales dashboard: build a sales performance dashboard from the starter file with Copilot.
Project 5 Exit Interviews1:02
Project 5, exit interviews: use Copilot to analyze exit interview text and work out why people are leaving.

Requirements

A Microsoft 365 subscription that includes Copilot, on the account you sign in with. Note that only the subscription owner gets Copilot inside the Excel desktop app - if you are a member on someone else's Family plan, you will not see it.
Your files saved to OneDrive with AutoSave switched on. Copilot in Excel will not run on a file stored only on your local drive.
Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows or Mac, or Excel for the web.
Basic familiarity with spreadsheets. You do not need to know any formulas - Copilot writes them for you.

Description

This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

Every lesson in this course is written, created and recorded by me. AI is used only to help produce supporting images and written materials around the lessons.

Which products are actually driving our growth? Why did the North region drop last quarter? What are customers really saying in these 400 comments? Those are the questions a manager asks.

This course shows you how to answer them in Excel using Microsoft Copilot, by typing the question in plain English instead of building a formula. It is deliberately short. Three hours, start to finish, and you will be using Copilot on your own data on the same day.

COURSE CONTENT AND OUTCOMES

Setup and prepare data in Excel for Copilot
Use Copilot to create formulas and to explain formulas
Create Key Metrics, Table Summaries, Graphs, Highlight Data and Advanced Calculations
Analyze and understand the structure of data sets
Summarize, classify and extract information from free text - survey responses, comments, support tickets
Clean and Transform Messy data files
Five guided projects using realistic Sales, Finance and HR data

REQUIREMENTS:

A Microsoft 365 subscription that includes Copilot, on the account you sign in with. Note that only the subscription owner gets Copilot inside the Excel desktop app - if you are a member on someone else's Family plan, you will not see it.

Your files saved to OneDrive with AutoSave switched on. Copilot in Excel will not run on a file stored only on your local drive.
Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows or Mac, or Excel for the web.
Basic familiarity with spreadsheets. You do not need to know any formulas - Copilot writes them for you.

ABOUT THE TRAINER

I have been training business people to work with data since 2008, and publishing on Udemy since 2013. I now have 16 live courses with more than 400,000 students and more than 139,000 reviews, at an average rating of 4.6. I teach Microsoft Excel, Copilot in Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Looker Studio and Amazon QuickSight.

What makes my courses different is that I teach the analysis, not just the tool - every lesson starts with a business question someone actually asks, and shows you how to answer it with software you already have.

WHAT STUDENTS ARE SAYING

I really enjoyed this short course! I had no idea that I could upload a data file and do this type of analysis. Very useful information that could be used daily at work
Great course on using Copilot for data analytics and integrating with excel.
I really enjoyed this short course! I had no idea that I could upload a data file and do this type of analysis. While the course is short, it walked us through many scenarios which can be applied to our own data sets. Very useful information that could be used daily at work. Copilot is great at explaining these concepts.

If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription with Copilot and you are not sure what it can actually do inside Excel, this is the fastest way to find out. Enrol now and start with your own spreadsheet this afternoon.

Who this course is for:

Analysts and managers who already work in Excel every day and want Copilot to take over the slow parts - the formulas, the cleaning, the summarising - so the time goes on the decision instead.
People who have a Microsoft 365 subscription with Copilot and are not sure what it can actually do inside Excel. This is the short, practical tour.
Anyone who needs to make sense of free text - survey responses, support tickets, review comments - and has no way to do it with formulas.

Copilot in Excel: Data Analysis for Beginners in 3 Hours

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction7 lectures • 21min

Formulas with Copilot5 lectures • 23min

Analyzing Data with Copilot in Excel12 lectures • 1hr 5min

Understanding Your Data Before You Analyze It4 lectures • 24min

Analyzing Unstructured Text Data5 lectures • 31min

Cleanse and Transform Data6 lectures • 28min

Projects6 lectures • 6min

Course Conclusion1 lecture • 1min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: