Changes to Excel in the last 24 months

Here are just some of the changes that have happened over the last 24 months in Excel

Copilot Agent mode

Excel’s AI assistant that builds, edits, and transforms entire workbooks for you, step‑by‑step, performing the work directly in your spreadsheet

Benefits

Huge time saver, reducing hours of manual work to minutes

COPILOT function

The COPILOT function lets you Talk to your data using plain English

Benefit

Handles messy, real-world data. Works directly in a cell and you don’t have to create long complex formulas.

Search box

Used to find any feature and formula function in Excel

Benefit

No need to remember where features are on the ribbon, or to use right click in the hope you’ll find what you’re after

GROUPBY function

The GROUPBY function creates a summary table using just one formula.

Benefit

If your data range changes your summary range changes dynamically – no need to refresh

PIVOTBY function

The PIVOTBY function lets you create a PivotTable‑style summary using just a formula.

Benefit

You get the equivalent of a dynamic PivotTable layout (row headers, column headers, values) without manually building one.

TRIMRANGE function

The TRIMRANGE function is like telling Excel only give me the part of this range that actually has data — trim the empty bits off the edges.

Benefit

Eliminates wrong results, prevents slow calculations and spreadsheets, prevents unnecessary zeros showing up, ensures charts and reports update correctly

Focus cell

Focus cell highlights specific rows and columns

Benefit

Allows for easier navigation and readability in a large Excel data range

Checkboxes

Excel checkboxes are small clickable boxes you can tick or untick to show whether something is selected, completed, or true/false.

Benefit

Easier to set up and use than dropdowns and can be filtered.