Give your spreadsheet a useful second opinion

Begin with a copy

Keep the original workbook unchanged. Create a small anonymized table with clear column names, units, and dates. Explain what one row represents. A column called “amount” means little without a currency, period, and definition.

Ask for questions before conclusions

Have AI suggest three useful questions and identify missing or ambiguous data. Choose one. For a fictional event budget, you might ask which category exceeds its allocation—not whether the event is “successful.”

Keep the calculation visible

Ask for a spreadsheet formula, an explanation of its inputs, and a small worked example. Paste the formula into your copy and calculate a few rows by hand. Check empty cells, refunds, mixed currencies, and duplicate records.

Explain the limits

A chart can look convincing while using the wrong denominator. Keep units, filters, exclusions, and sample size beside your result. Treat AI as a way to propose an analysis you can inspect, rather than as the authority over your numbers.

Here is a small anonymized table: [data]. One row means [definition]. Units: [units]. Suggest three questions this data can answer and flag data-quality issues. For the question I choose, show a spreadsheet formula, explain each input, and provide a hand-checkable example. Do not infer missing values.