Data Analysis with Prompts

Generating Insights And Charts From A Table

Once a table has real data in it, Copilot can analyse the whole thing — pulling out patterns, generating summaries, and creating charts — without you having to write formulas or build visualisations by hand. There are three ways to do this, each suited to a different situation.

Getting Suggested Insights

When you want Copilot to surface whatever it finds notable in the data:

1. Select the table;
2. Right-click to open the context menu;
3. Choose Copilot Suggestions;
4. Select Show me interesting insights.

Copilot adds new cells directly into the sheet containing summaries, comparisons, and key findings — averages, counts, category breakdowns, patterns it considers meaningful. Below those, it also inserts automatically generated charts visualising the same information.

One thing to note: "interesting" is Copilot's judgment of what stands out in the data, not necessarily what's interesting in your specific context. It's a strong starting point, but it's not a substitute for the questions you actually want to answer.

Asking For Broad Visualisations

If you want more charts than the insights view provides, ask Copilot:

"Visualize data"

Copilot generates a wider range of graphs based on the table — column charts, pie charts, category comparisons. Useful when you want a complete visual overview of the dataset rather than only the highlights Copilot picked itself.

Asking For A Specific Insight

When you already know which relationship or comparison you want to see, ask for it directly. A targeted prompt produces a chart focused on exactly that question — for example, comparing two categories over time, or showing the distribution of one variable against another.

This is what you reach for when "interesting insights" doesn't show the angle that actually matters for your work. Copilot can't know what you care about until you tell it.

When To Use Which

The three modes serve different starting points:

• Show me interesting insights — when you want Copilot to pick what stands out;
• Visualize data — when you want a broad visual overview;
• Specific prompt — when you know exactly what relationship you want to see.

You often use them in sequence: start with insights to get oriented, then ask for the specific charts that matter most.