The AI upgrade that turns Excel into an automated analyst

The Essentials

• Microsoft has updated Copilot in Excel with custom workflow skills and live third-party financial data connectors.
• The update integrates six new partner data sources including PitchBook and Morningstar into your existing spreadsheets.
• Finance professionals can now automate recurring processes like variance analysis and book closing to save hours of manual entry.

The Pulse

Microsoft’s AI assistant in Excel can now memorise your team’s specific financial processes and execute them automatically. Instead of typing the same complex prompt every month to update a forecast, users can define the exact steps, formatting, and naming conventions once. The AI then runs the routine as a repeatable skill, matching the exact standards your company demands.

This shift moves Copilot from a basic chatbot to a governed workspace for analytical labour. Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) teams often spend days manually pulling data and reconstructing historical analyses. By introducing live data connectors from providers like CB Insights, Daloopa, and Morningstar, the platform allows analysts to bring verified public and private market intelligence straight into the grid.

How does Copilot in Excel handle accountability when making automatic changes?

The new Plan with Copilot feature details exactly which cells and formulas it intends to alter before making a single edit. Every modification remains traceable through the Show Changes pane, ensuring the final output is verifiable. This means users spend less time hunting for information and more time making actual business decisions.

The Snapshot

Feature	Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel
Core Update	Repeatable finance skills and live data connectors
New Data Partners	CB Insights, Daloopa, FactSet, Morningstar, PitchBook, S&P Global
Custom Workflow File	SKILL.md (stored via OneDrive)
Traceability Tool	Plan with Copilot and Show Changes attribution
General Availability	Live now across Web, Windows, and Mac
Custom Skills Rollout	Insiders channel now, general availability in July 2026
Subscription Requirement	Microsoft 365 Copilot (approximately ₹2,500 per user per month)

The Big Picture

Financial software vendors are racing to integrate artificial intelligence into the office of the CFO. While companies like Workday have introduced AI capabilities to reduce reliance on standalone spreadsheets, Excel remains deeply entrenched in corporate finance across India. Microsoft’s approach does not attempt to replace the spreadsheet. Instead, by partnering with the Financial Modeling Institute to test these tools, Microsoft is cementing Excel’s position as the primary dashboard for financial analysis. The goal is to keep high-value analytical work inside Microsoft’s software suite rather than losing ground to niche fintech platforms.

The India Prospective

Indian corporate finance teams and boutique advisory firms will find immediate value in these automation tools, provided they already subscribe to Microsoft 365 Copilot. The base Copilot add-on costs approximately ₹2,500 per user each month but tapping into the new third-party intelligence connectors will require separate subscriptions to platforms like PitchBook or Morningstar. This makes the full setup most viable for established financial institutions rather than early-stage startups.

The Inside Intel

Rather than keeping the workflow definitions locked inside a proprietary settings menu, Microsoft uses a surprisingly simple open-standard markdown file. Finance teams just create a basic text file named SKILL.md detailing their exact formatting and structural rules and save it directly to their OneDrive. Copilot automatically reads this document and learns to build complex financial models precisely the way that specific company prefers.

The Unboxed Truth

Unbox Daily HQ considers this a highly practical upgrade for finance departments that already rely heavily on Excel for complex reporting. The true value lies in the traceability features; AI tools often fail in corporate finance because they act as black boxes, but the ability to preview intended changes and trace every formula edit makes this enterprise-ready. The base subscription makes sense for mid-to-large corporate teams, though the added cost of third-party data connectors means smaller firms will likely stick to custom SKILL.md workflows rather than live data pulls. If your team spends the last week of every month manually reconciling the same three-statement models, this will save days of repetitive labour.

Best for: FP&A analysts and corporate finance teams who manage repeatable monthly reporting.

Who Is This For: Perfect for 28 to 55-year-old working professionals in corporate finance who want to automate data entry without losing visibility into their calculations.

The Checkout

Microsoft 365 Copilot

The Source

Microsoft Global

The Query