Introduction

Important Note: The examples in this blog series were generated using my personal access to Claude and do not represent or utilize any resources from my employer. Please review and follow your institution’s IT and AI policies before installing or using any similar tools.

Welcome, brave spreadsheet warrior. You've been working with Copilot in Excel and have felt emotionally drained at all the things it just can't get right? You might argue, isn't that the same for any AI tool or add-on? AI is not perfect and certainly not the magic wand we might think it is. Plus it all can get pretty complicated with all the options that we have out there. So, why not throw another one into the mix? Say hello to Claude in Excel. A series of Large Language Models developed by Anthropic, Claude is "seen as one of the safest language models."

Geared mostly to financial people, Claude offers all kinds of analysts the tools to enhance their modeling and analysis work. This blog series will walk you through the fundamentals you need to know to transform your Excel experience from "why won't this work?" to "oh my gosh, this actually works."

Part 1: Why Claude > Copilot (The Reasons We Are No Longer Fans)

Copilot's Greatest Hits (And Misses)

Let's be honest—Copilot in Excel has a resume filled with broken promises:

The Failures:

·         Inconsistent formula suggestions that make you question its understanding of basic addition and subtraction.

·         Agent Mode limitations: Even with its fancy new Agent Mode feature available on desktop, it struggles with complex, multi-step spreadsheet tasks.

·         Overly conservative approach: It refuses to make changes without extensive hand-holding, as if it's afraid you'll blame it for your own mistakes (which, fair, you probably will).

·         Limited context understanding: Give it a complex inherited spreadsheet and watch it panic like it just discovered calculus.

·         Web search dependency: Often reaching out to the internet for solutions when the answer is literally in your spreadsheet.

·         No real Power Query support: If you're a Power Query enthusiast like our manual's author, Copilot basically tells you "good luck, buddy."

Why Claude Is The Upgrade You Deserve

Claude, on the other hand, brings a completely different energy:

·         Actually understands spreadsheets (shocking, I know).

·         Works with complex, inherited workbooks without breaking a digital sweat.

·         Provides clear explanations alongside solutions—you'll actually learn something.

·         Consistent performance across different spreadsheet scenarios.

·         Better at handling messy data and real-world spreadsheet chaos.

·         More transparent reasoning—it tells you why it's doing what it's doing.

·         Superior formula troubleshooting that goes beyond pattern matching.

·         Better visualization suggestions that don't look like they were designed in 1997 (this doesn’t mean I didn’t love the 90s, I mean that is when the fun pop song MMMBop came out!)

Let's Summarize

Before you shut this workbook and go back to pretending that VLOOKUP is “good enough,” you’re now equipped with the basics of working with Claude in Excel: how to get it installed, why it outperforms Copilot for real-world spreadsheet work, and where its current limits are. You’ve met your new AI sidekick; next week, we level it up. In Part 2, we’ll go over the installation steps and pricing to get you to a place where you can start having actual conversations with your spreadsheets!