Microsoft Copilot for Excel gets a major upgrade focused on finance workflows, live data, and change traceability, enhancing how finance teams interact with spreadsheets.

Users can choose from prebuilt finance skills or craft custom ones, with partner skills from LSEG, Ramp, Rogo, and Vena slated to arrive via Microsoft Marketplace later this year.

Copilot now includes a Plan with Copilot mode that shows exactly which ranges, formulas, and assumptions will be touched before making changes, addressing trust in AI-driven finance work.

The update is live now for Microsoft 365 Copilot customers on Excel across Web, Windows, and Mac, with broader Skills rollout to all users over the coming month.

The new Skills feature lets users define repeatable finance tasks—like discounted cash flow, closing the books, and variance analysis—by saving a SKILL.md file in OneDrive, enabling Copilot to automate formatting and structure thereafter.

This update builds on Excel’s Agent Mode and follows Microsoft's acquisition of Fintool, signaling a sharpened emphasis on finance-specific AI capabilities.

All edits performed by Copilot are fully traceable, and a Show Changes pane distinguishes Copilot edits from human edits.