While Copilot for Microsoft 365 might be grabbing headlines, there's a hidden AI Function waiting to be discovered right in your Excel spreadsheet.

That's what we'll be covering in today's Between the Sheets. Also discover:

• New AI capabilities in Windows and Edge
• How to use your phone camera as a webcam
• Trevor Noah joined Microsoft?!

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🤖 Getting started with the LABS.GENERATIVEAI function in Excel

If you can't get Copilot for Microsoft 365, there're other ways of bringing AI into your Excel sheet.

One of them is the LABS.GENERATIVEAI() function.

Set-up

To bring AI to your Excel spreadsheets, follow these steps:

1. Install Excel Labs. You'll find it in the Add-ins store on Excel's Home tab.

2. Setup an OpenAI account and navigate to API keys. Click on "Create new secret key".

3. Open Excel Labs, select LABS.GENERATIVEAI and paste the secret key you copied from OpenAI.

⚠️ OpenAI API is a paid service, and it's different from ChatGPT Plus.

When you sign up, you get some free tokens for three months to test it.

If you use all tokens or after 3 months, you need to pay if you want to keep using it.

What do you get with these tokens?

Essentially, they allow you to use ChatGPT directly in Excel.

You just write your prompts inside the function. And since it's text, you need to put it inside quotation marks.

You get the flexibility of the Excel grid. You can refer to other cells. You can combine it with other functions.

Example #1 Text Analysis

A popular case for AI is sentiment analysis. Analyzing free text from surveys and feedback forms tends to be manual. Typically, this requires someone to read and categorize each response.

Or you can automate this process by using the formula:

=LABS.GENERATIVEAI("Categorize the sentiment of this text as 'Positive', 'Neutral' or 'Negative' " & A2)

Then copy the formula down.

You might need to tweak the prompt to improve the results.

Be clearer with your instructions to get the response in the format you want, e.g.:

=LABS.GENERATIVEAI("Categorize the sentiment of this text as 'Positive', 'Neutral' or 'Negative'. Do not include a period at the end of your response. Use proper case." & A2)

Adjust settings

You can also change the function's settings in the Excel Labs pane. They include a setting for Temperature, which controls the consistency of responses. Set it to 0 to get the same output for the same inputs. With a higher temperature, you get greater variety.

Maximum Output Length controls the number of tokens returned in the response. 1 token is approximately 4 characters.

You can also change the temperature and output length for each prompt. Use the optional arguments of the function:

=LABS.GENERATIVEAI(prompt, [temperature], [max_tokens], [model])

Example #2 Spilling the results

Another use of the AI function is to retrieve information and generate content. In Excel you want lists and tables rather than paragraphs.

The downside is that the LABS.GENERATIVEAI function doesn't spill. It returns the results in the same cell, which is not ideal.

But since it's a function, you can combine it with TEXTSPLIT to get the results in separate cells.

Let's look at an example:

=TEXTSPLIT(LABS.GENERATIVEAI("Return a comma-delimited list of the 50 US states with no introductory text"), ,", ")

Here, we skip the column delimiter and only use the row delimiter to organize the data in one column.

Example #3 Long prompts & returning tables

More precise prompts return better results. But the more you include in the request, the longer it gets.

To keep things simple, add the prompt in a separate cell.

So instead of:

=TEXTSPLIT(LABS.GENERATIVEAI("Return a table of top 10 coffee-producing countries and the coffee production volume in tons in each country. The table should have 2 columns: 'Country', 'Volume (tons)'. Only return the table, no introductory text. " & "Below the table, return the source of the information"), "|", UNICHAR(10), TRUE, , "")

You have:

=TEXTSPLIT(LABS.GENERATIVEAI(B1), "|", UNICHAR(10), TRUE, , "")

That's much easier to manage and reuse in the future.

(UNICHAR(10) is a line break and serves as our row delimiter; the pipe symbol separates columns in GPT tables.)

When asking AI about facts, always double-check the results. It's a good idea to ask for the source of information.

Your Turn!

Found a creative use for LABS.GENERATIVEAI()?

Reply to this email with your thoughts or check the Beginner's Guide in the Excel Labs pane (Excel sidebar) for more ideas.

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💚 The power of asking questions

I completely missed the news that Trevor Noah partnered with Microsoft! He's such an inspiration. He was my main source for news when he was hosting The Daily Show.

His role and title at Microsoft is Chief Questions Officer. He hosts The Prompt, a podcast exploring the impact of AI. In it, he talks to experts - doctors, scientists, researchers. They discuss the potential of AI to drive innovation and positive change.

Recently, Trevor spoke at the Global Nonprofit Leaders Summit. Some of the points he made really resonated with me.

Specially when he talked about the power of technology in education. He believes that AI can make education more accessible, especially in places with limited resources. It can transform how we teach and even out the opportunities. If every child gets its own AI tutor, education will be better for everyone.

He is optimistic about AI. He has seen its impact in the research and philanthropic sectors, as well as education.

AI doesn't do the "thinking", but it can scale up human thinking, as well as free people up from mundane tasks.

He has more great insights about technology, society, communication and learning. The key takeaway - you cannot learn if you're not willing to be wrong.

Check out the whole interview, it's worth it!

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🤓 Geeky News

🤖 Copilot in Edge can now summarize YouTube videos

Say you're watching a YouTube video and want to save the key points.

If you're watching on Edge, you can just go to Copilot and have it generate video highlights.

This includes clickable timestamps, so you can quickly jump to the relevant section. But you can also ask specific questions about the content.

For now, it works on video sites like YouTube or Vimeo and as long as they have a transcript. You can't use it yet on videos embedded elsewhere.

🖼️ Remove clutter from pictures with generative erase in Windows Photos app

In the latest update to the Windows Photos app (coming soon to both Windows 11 and Windows 10), you get enhanced photo editing capabilities.

The generative erase feature uses AI to seamlessly clean up unwanted elements from an image.

It can handle erasing large areas or multiple objects at once. You choose the level of precision required.

In addition, Windows 10 will get other AI edit features, already available in Windows 11, like blur, remove and replace background.

🎦 Use your phone camera as a webcam on Windows

Windows 11 will soon let you connect your Android (9.0 or later) phone camera feed to your computer.

Make sure the Link to Windows app on your phone is up to date. Enable "Use as connected camera" in mobile device settings on your PC.

You can switch between front and back cameras and pause the stream. Also, any effects available on your mobile are fair game (within reason during work calls 😉).

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👏 Power Stories

Congrats to Tomasz on completing Master NEW Excel Functions in Office 365 & Office 2021!

The new Excel 365 functions are a game-changer. They make previously complex problems in Excel easy to solve. If you want to create dynamic reports, you should have them in your arsenal.

Got a success story about using your XelPlus skills? I’d love to hear it! Hit reply to share the details, and inspire other students 😇

See you next week,

Leila

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