
Excel is an indispensable tool—anyone who has worked with data knows that. It’s versatile, powerful, and can help you in many ways. However, as data becomes more complex and tasks more demanding, the need for automation and advanced analysis capabilities becomes apparent. This is where AI plugins for Excel come into play.
Top 12 AI Plugins for Excel
In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the top AI plugins for Excel that can help you supercharge your spreadsheet tasks, saving you precious time and effort.
We’ll break them down by their key features, pricing, and who each tool is best for to give you the information you need to choose the right one for your needs.
1. Datarails
Datarails offers an AI-powered FP&A platform that seamlessly integrates with Excel. It allows you to keep your existing financial models and spreadsheets while harnessing AI to automate repetitive processes, reduce errors, and gain actionable insights from your data.
With impressive G2 and Capterra ratings, you can trust that Datarails will meet your AI FP&A needs, including data consolidation, financial reports, data planning and analysis, scenario analysis, and sales commission.
There are all kinds of solutions to explore, but Storyboards is a great place to start.
Storyboards is part of Genius by Datarails, and it transforms complex financial data into an engaging financial narrative in just a few clicks. With it, you can make financial storytelling easier than ever.
You’ll be empowered to present financial data with ease and confidence, knowing you’re backed by powerful generative AI.
We also help you integrate with the most popular accounting software, ERPs, and CRMs, consolidating your data in one convenient place.
When it comes to AI plugins for Excel in particular, we’re proud to offer the flexibility of Excel with the power of Datarails. Our FinanceOS lets you keep working in your Excel environment with 100% functionality.
Further, our automated consolidation and reporting saves you time, so you can focus all of your time on the strategic insights that drive your business growth.
Price Range: All of our pricing is custom. This allows us to create the perfect solution for each client based on their unique needs and use cases. Request a quote for a fast response.
Best For: Finance professionals, data analysts, and anyone looking to automate financial modeling (including corporate budgeting) and analysis in Excel.
Website: Datarails
2. Ajelix AI
Ajelix AI is a data analytics platform that harnesses the combined power of AI Excel tools and business intelligence.
Included in its 17+ tools are an Excel formula generator and AI Excel tools.
Among its top features and tools are:
- An AI dashboard generator
- Conversational analytics
- 10+ AI Excel Tools
- Spreadsheet Formula Generator
- VBA and Google Apps Code Creator
- Excel Template Builder
- File Translator
- Excel and Google Sheets Add-on
- AI Spreadsheet Assistant
- AI graph generator
- SQL generator
Price Range: Free version with basic features. Paid plans range from $75-$1,680 annually.
Best For: It is marketed to “busy people,” including small business owners, teams without extensive technical knowledge, and Mac/Microsoft users.
Website: Ajelix AI
Wondering if AI will replace financial analysts? Head to this post next to find out.
3. Tableau
Tableau has introduced a user-friendly drag-and-drop approach to visual data analysis for a new way to explore Excel data. With Tableau for Excel, you can seamlessly ask and answer questions in real time.
This eliminates the need to generate separate reports or cross-tabs for every query. Tableau’s visualizations are interactive and highly shareable, making accessing crucial insights easier for every organization member.
Even more remarkable is that Tableau seamlessly integrates with Excel spreadsheets, streamlining the data analysis process. Excel users can retain familiar spreadsheets while significantly enhancing their data analysis capabilities.
Tableau empowers users to create clear, easy-to-understand visualizations that effectively convey information, all while keeping data analysis fast and straightforward.
One of Tableau’s strengths is the resources it offers for users when it comes to moving to Tableau and, in their words, “overcoming Excel’s hurdles.”
Price Range: Free trial, and students and teachers get one free year of Tableau Desktop, Prep, and eLearning. The free trial now includes “Tableau Agent,” a conversational AI assistant. Their plans range from $35-$115 per month per user. Contact them for custom pricing for more users.
Best For: Data visualization and interactive reporting, suitable for analysts and data enthusiasts.
Website: Tableau
4. Kutools for Excel
Kutools for Excel is a comprehensive Excel add-in with an impressive collection of tools and features from ExtendOffice. While not strictly AI-driven, it enriches your productivity in Excel with various shortcuts and utilities for faster and more efficient work.
Some of its features and benefits include:
- 30-day free trial with full features
- Two years of free upgrades
- Lifetime access once you buy it
- 60-day Money Back Guarantee
- Supports 44 languages
- 300+ Features, including an AI assistant
- 1500+ Work Scenarios
Price Range: $49 per user. As you add more users, the cost per user goes down.
Best For: Excel users who want to simplify their workflows and access various Excel tools and utilities.
Website: Kutools for Excel
5. XLSTAT
XLSTAT by Lumivero is an Excel add-in that brings advanced statistical analysis tools to your spreadsheets.
As they explain, 150,000+ users in over 120 countries use it! It offers a wide range of data analysis methods, including machine learning algorithms, allowing them to tackle complex analytical tasks with no coding required.
Some of its standout features include:
- Integration with Microsoft Excel without coding
- Streamlined data preparation and processing within Excel
- Access to comprehensive data reports
- Customizable Excel charts to suit your needs
- Responsive customer support and access to free online tutorials
- Special discounts are available for students and academics
- Directly integrated into Microsoft Excel for user convenience
Price Range: Free two-week trial with paid plans ranging from $55 to $1,775 per year. Corporate/private use plans range from $345 per year for Basic features to $1,775 for Premium.
Best For: Statistical analysis and data modeling in Excel, ideal for researchers and analysts.
Website: XLSTAT
6. Power Query
Power Query is a built-in Excel tool for data acquisition, transformation, and integration. It helps users connect, merge, and reshape data from various sources. Ultimately, it’s a valuable asset for data professionals in multiple industries.
It has an online and desktop version, but Excel notes that these two experiences are almost identical. It can be used in programs like Azure Data Factory, Power BI Report Server, and Excel for Mac.
Price Range: Free (built into Excel)
Best For: Data transformation and integration tasks in Excel, suitable for data professionals.
Website: Microsoft Power Query
7. Zapier
Zapier is an automation platform that lets users create “Zaps” to connect with thousands of apps and services, including Excel, Slack, and PowerPoint. It allows them to automate data transfers, notifications, and other tasks, enhancing Excel’s impressive capabilities.
In their words: “Zapier lets you send info between Microsoft Excel and AI by Zapier automatically—no code required. With 5,000+ supported apps, the possibilities are endless.”
Price Range: Free for individual plans/basic use. Plans (billed annually) range from $19.99 for Starter to $69 for Team. Contact Zapier for custom company pricing.
Best For: Automating workflows and connecting Excel with other apps and tools.
Website: Zapier
8. DataRobot
DataRobot is an AutoML platform that allows users to build, deploy, and manage machine learning models with the goal of “maximizing impact while minimizing risk.” It can be integrated with Excel to automate building predictive models and making data-driven decisions.
(This article explores how AI helps CFOs make data-driven decisions.)
Its AI features boast incredible capabilities in AI experimentation and production. In their words, they “close the generative AI confidence gap.”
Their website features several resources for users, including an AI Accelerators Library, which provides AI solutions for many industries, including healthcare, finance, energy, and retail.
Price Range: Contact for pricing.
Best For: Automated machine learning (AutoML) for predictive analytics in Excel.
Website: DataRobot
9. Alteryx
Alteryx is a data analytics platform that streamlines data preparation and blending tasks. It can connect to Excel and help you cleanse, transform, and analyze data efficiently, making it a valuable asset for data professionals.
Its drag-and-drop interface was designed to help business owners make faster, data-driven decisions. Alteryx also offers predictive analytics capabilities for forecasting and simulation.
Alteryx is also equipped with multi-layered governance features, including security and governance, to support IT compliance.
Price Range: They offer free trials for cloud and desktop users. Contact for pricing beyond the free trial.
Best For: Data preparation, blending, and advanced analytics for Excel users.
Website: Alteryx
10. Nintex RPA
Nintex RPA is an automation platform that includes features for Excel automation. It allows you to create bots to handle repetitive tasks, data entry, and report generation in Excel, enhancing productivity.
Its key features include process identification, process management, workflow management, application development, analytics, and document generation. It’s also known for being a flexible AI plugin for Excel that lets users put it to work for them in the way that suits them best.
Some of Nintex’s use cases include quote to cash, reduced operational risk, loan processing, and remote education automated services.
Price Range: Users can contact Nintex for a quote or to book a demo.
Best For: Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tasks in Excel and other applications.
Website: Nintex RPA
11. KNIME
KNIME is an open-source platform for data analytics, reporting, and integration. Dubbed a “complete platform for data science,” KNIME combines data analytics and machine learning workflows in Excel. It can be integrated with Excel and provides a visual workflow editor for building data processing and machine learning pipelines.
Its latest iteration—KNIME Analytics Platform 5.4—is now available to download.
This version allows users to do many things, including:
- Build KNIME workflows with K-AI directly in the canvas.
- Use an expanded range of large language models, including Databricks models and GPT4All models on IBM Granite and Microsoft Phi 3.5
- Effortlessly maintain retrieval augmented generation (RAG) knowledge bases
- Detects whether LLM outputs and RAG systems show evidence of bias, hallucination, data leakage, and more.
This latest version also includes several UI enhancements to improve your experience with the platform.
Price Range: Individual plans are free, but KNIME offers several paid plans for other uses. For small teams, Knime-managed plans start at $99 a month. Annual customer-managed plans start at $39,900, $71,250 for the standard plan, and enterprise pricing is available upon request.
Best For: It’s ideal for those with limited programming experience, as no coding is required. KNIME markets its solutions to various industries, including retail, marketing, energy and utilities, manufacturing, HR, and supply chain.
Website: KNIME
12. GPTExcel
This is a cost-effective option for a basic AI Excel tool that creates spreadsheet formulas. Users have created more than 20 million formulas with it so far, and many appreciate its user-friendliness.
Along with its Excel Formula Generator AI tool, GPTExcel also offers:
- Script Generator AI: VBA, Apps Scripts, and Airtable Scripts
- SQL Query Generator AI
- Regex Generator AI
- Template Generator AI
Price Range: The free plan offers access to basic features but does not include priority access to customer support or the AI chatbot. The paid plan ($6.99/month) offers those features and many others.
Best For: Beginners or those in need of quick access to spreadsheet formulas. The free version is limited to four requests per day, so most businesses will require a more comprehensive platform.
Website: GPTExcel
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About AI Plugins for Excel
If you have questions about AI plugins for Excel, we’ve covered much more about them in our FAQ section.
Is there any AI tool for Excel?
Yes, several AI-powered tools can enhance your Excel experience. These tools utilize artificial intelligence to automate tasks, extract insights, and perform advanced data analysis within Excel.
Along with the 12 tools we discussed today, there are AI tools for Excel for virtually any job you may need to perform.
Which AI is best for Excel?
The best AI tool for Excel depends on your specific needs. Consider your requirements for AI tools for Excel and choose the one that best fits your workflow.
Datarails is an excellent choice for automating financial modeling and analysis, and it also includes powerful generative AI tools, including Storyboards, Chat, and Insights.
What is the GPT extension for Excel?
Microsoft offers a GPT for Excel app to help users apply AI inside Excel.
Some of the features it assists with include:
- Create whole paragraphs or procedures
- Organize lists of names, addresses, and emails
- Generate images in bulk using AI inside Excel sheets
- Draft responses to online comments
- Rapidly experiment with different versions of a prompt
- Create ad copy (PPC, Google Ads, Facebook Ads)
- Optimize SEO metadata (titles, descriptions)
- Enhance landing page copy
Final Thoughts: The Best AI Plugins for Excel
Incorporating AI into your Excel tasks can increase efficiency and accuracy in your data analysis. And with the right tools, you can make an already robust platform virtually unstoppable.
With these top AI plugins for Excel, including Datarails, on your side, you can easily handle all your financial modeling and analysis needs.
What to Read Next:
Here are three articles to read next on the topic of AI: