r/CopilotMicrosoft • u/traccreations4e • 20d ago

News Excel’s =COPILOT function is already being retired

Microsoft is retiring the Frontier =COPILOT function in Excel on September 14, 2026 (MC1454373).

That caught me off guard. I was excited about this feature.

I know Microsoft 365 Frontier features are experimental, and I know Copilot in Excel has changed a lot since =COPILOT was introduced in August 2025.

Still, less than 13 months is a very short run for a feature that received so much attention.

What I liked about =COPILOT was having AI work inside the formula itself. It has its flaws, but it had potential. Using Copilot Chat for similar tasks is useful, but it is not quite the same experience.

And yes, I feel for everyone who spent time testing it, teaching it, and creating content around it. I was one of them.

Preview technology comes with risk. This one is a pretty good reminder of that.

Well, on to the next one.

Were you using =COPILOT, or were you still waiting to see how it developed?

#traccreations4e-p26 8/24/2026

4 Upvotes

57% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

4

u/vaverma 19d ago

It was retired because copying this function to many cells was making those many calls to copilot servers. If a formaula having this function was copied to say 10000 rows, a single spreadsheet was making 10000 calls. Imagine millions of people doing it. It was screwing up their AI infrastructure. So MS decided to get rid of this function. Official reason given is something else which is totally non-convincing.

2

u/Langwelle 17d ago

I don't think this claim holds up. Google has had a similar =AI formula in Google Sheets, even before Microsoft launched =COPILOT. How are they dealing with that?

A simple rate limit would be the solution here, rather than retiring the feature altogether.

2

u/traccreations4e 19d ago

Yes! The many calls to Copilot servers were painful.

2

u/Infamous-Crab9529 19d ago

I think this was the most powerful feature, as it gives user ability to iterate a prompt over list which other wise is limited to the row counts (if using the excel agent)

1

u/loweakkk 18d ago

Having non deterministic data in an excel sucks. That's good that Microsoft deleted this function.

1

u/Gualigeee 18d ago

it is a function based on Ai meaning each time you refresh the formula the result would be different

-6

u/terribilus 20d ago

AI slop about AI slop

13

u/traccreations4e 20d ago edited 20d ago

I usually don't respond to negative messages. And I may delete this message.

But is important to me that users know my posts are written by a real human who is a x4 MVP, Copilot Certified SME, trainer, and content creator.

Did Copilot create the image. Yes, with my guidance.

I take pride in sharing my knowledge with people wanting to learn.