Microsoft Excel gets “smart”

As part of the Microsoft Office 365 updates, your Excel sheet tool just got a little “smarter”.

Check out this announcement on the official blog of Microsoft Office:

Today, we are announcing new, cloud-connected data types in Excel, starting with Stocks and Geography. With added AI capabilities, Excel can now recognize rich data types beyond numbers and text strings. For example, Excel recognizes that “France” is a country and automatically associates it with additional attributes such as population and gross domestic product, using the same technology that powers Bing answers. These attributes can then be populated into different cells or used directly in formulas and stay updated with the latest data. Based on machine learning, these new data types will simplify the process of working with real-world data. In the future, we’ll add organizational data types backed by the Microsoft Graph to Excel—intelligently enhancing your spreadsheets with even richer content.

Expanding capabilities in Excel Online—We also introduced several highly requested desktop features to Excel Online, making it easier to create and edit spreadsheets in your browser. Now, you can insert Pivot Tables and delete rows and columns to analyze and format data. You can also insert images from local storage, duplicate existing worksheets, and change the color of tabs—enhancing your control over the look and feel of your work.