Chat with Your Spreadsheet: Insights Without the Headache

Your spreadsheet already contains valuable information about your business. The problem is knowing how to find it without spending hours sorting columns, fixing formulas, or trying to make sense of rows and rows of numbers. This practical workshop shows you how to use AI and natural language to explore spreadsheets, so you can ask straightforward questions about your data and turn the answers into useful business insights. Instead of spending your afternoon working out the right formula, you could ask: • Which products generated the most revenue? • Which days were busiest? • Where are my margins falling? • Which expenses have increased the most? • What patterns should I be paying attention to? You will learn how to work with your business data more efficiently, while understanding the important boundaries around data privacy, accuracy, and human review. No data science background required. No advanced Excel skills required. Just bring a spreadsheet and your business questions. Who this is for This session is designed for business owners and professionals who work with spreadsheets but want a simpler way to understand their numbers: • Small business owners who want clearer insights from sales, expenses, and customer data • Retail and e-commerce operators analysing products, sales performance, and inventory • Service providers and freelancers tracking revenue, costs, and profitability • Hospitality and venue managers looking at sales patterns, peak periods, and operational costs • Business and operations staff who regularly work with Excel or Google Sheets • Anyone who wants to make data-informed business decisions without becoming a data analyst What we will do together • Ask questions in plain English: Learn how to use natural language to explore spreadsheet data without relying on complex Excel or Google Sheets formulas. • Find the numbers that matter: Identify useful metrics such as revenue, expenses, margins, product performance, customer activity, and operational costs. • Spot trends and patterns: Explore changes over time, busy periods, unusual results, and other patterns that may be difficult to notice manually. • Investigate profitability: Learn how to identify products, services, or activities that contribute most to your business and where costs may be putting pressure on margins. • Turn data into simple visuals: Transform spreadsheet information into clear charts and summaries that make business trends easier to understand. • Work safely with business data: Understand what information should be protected, how to minimise sensitive data exposure, and why AI-generated analysis still needs to be checked. • Check before you act: Learn how to review AI-generated insights against your original spreadsheet before using them to make business decisions. What you will take home By the end of the workshop, you will have: • A practical approach for chatting with your spreadsheets using natural language • A set of reusable questions and prompts for analysing business data • A clearer understanding of your own business numbers • Practical methods for identifying trends, anomalies, costs, and opportunities • Simple data visualisation techniques for communicating insights • A better understanding of data privacy and responsible AI use • Greater confidence using spreadsheets as a decision-making tool Good to know Please bring your laptop and a spreadsheet you are comfortable working with. For the practical exercises, use non-sensitive or anonymised business data rather than confidential customer, employee, financial, or personally identifiable information. You do not need to be good at maths, Excel, or data analysis. The workshop is designed to help you understand your numbers, ask better questions, and make more informed business decisions without getting buried in formulas. The goal is not to replace your spreadsheet skills. It is to make the information already sitting in your spreadsheets easier to explore, understand, and use.