Analysis task
How to Analyze Spreadsheet Data with AI
AI can read a table and tell you what's interesting, write the formula you half-remember, and draft the summary — a fast first pass over data you then verify.
When AI is useful here
AI summarizes datasets, suggests analyses, writes formulas and queries, and drafts insight narratives. The numbers still need your verification against the source.
Use AI to get oriented in a new dataset, generate formulas or SQL, or turn analysis into a stakeholder-ready summary.
What to prepare
Give AI these and you'll get a much better result.
- The data (or a representative, de-identified sample)
- The question you want answered
- What tool you're working in (Sheets, Excel, SQL)
Step-by-step workflow
Each step includes prompts you can open and run.
Prompts for this task
Real prompts from the IterPrompt library.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Trusting AI's numbers without recomputing from the source
- Pasting sensitive data into public tools
- Reporting correlation as causation
Review checklist
Before you use the output
- Did I verify every figure against the source?
- Are formulas doing what I think?
- Are caveats and assumptions stated?
Safety & limitations
Verify the numbers
AI can miscompute or hallucinate values. Recompute anything you'll rely on, and don't paste confidential data into public tools.
Try a prompt for yourself
Open any prompt and run it in the IterPrompt playground.
Build a prompt library for your exact job
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