Microsoft researchers have unveiled a large-scale language model capable of improving spreadsheet interaction and understanding, marking a significant leap forward in AI’s ability to handle Excel files.
Described in a paperTitled “SpeedsheetLLM: Encoding Spreadsheets for Large Language Models,” the team seeks to explore the complexities and challenges of applying AI to structured, logical, and formulaic datasets.
SpreadsheetLLM promises the ability to combine these datasets with the already proven capabilities of large language models.
SpreadsheetLLM could make AI more efficient in your Excel sheet
According to the researchers, “SpreadsheetLLM is an approach to encoding the contents of a spreadsheet in a format that can be used with large language models (LLMs) and allows these models to reason about the contents of a spreadsheet.”
The study highlights the widespread use of spreadsheets in a variety of business operations, from simple data entry to complex financial modeling. However, despite the importance of these digital files, existing LLMs struggle to structure data and formulas. By encoding the data into a package that LLMs can understand, Microsoft researchers hope to harness the processing power of current generative AI tools that use existing LLMs in the Excel environment.
By harnessing the full potential of spreadsheet data, businesses using generative AI tools could improve their data-driven decision-making and improve the efficiency of other administrative tasks.
While SpreadsheetLLM is currently little more than a research project, the work to improve compatibility between Excel files and existing AI tools is at least a testament to the ever-evolving power of AI.
Additionally, while the company has not yet committed to building such a tool on a larger scale, Microsoft’s multi-billion dollar investment in ChatGPT creator OpenAI and subsequent rollout of generative AI features in its desktop applications imply that the tech giant is committed to making AI more accessible.