According to a NeoWin blog post on the 12th, Microsoft has rolled out the Copilot Interactive Canvas for Excel. Its logic is straightforward: users only need to give instructions in plain language, and the data in an existing workbook will instantly become a dynamic, auto-refreshing interactive report—whether it's an executive review, a project weekly report, or a status summary, it can be made on the spot and used right away.
This canvas is "bound" to the underlying worksheet tables: as long as the source data changes, the charts and layouts in the report update on their own without manual redoing. Users can also keep making requests to Copilot—adjusting the layout, swapping the key insights, changing the presentation style—like directing a report assistant that never gets tired. For now, the feature is first being opened to Microsoft 365 Insiders for an early try.
A two-piece bonus delivery: recording operations as "skills"
This time Microsoft also bundled and released the Skill Builder and the Skill Recorder. The former is scheduled for an official release in October (10); you use it by hashing out a workflow with Copilot—giving instructions, tossing in historical prompts, or submitting examples—and it distills that process into a reusable skill. The latter targets users who "can't explain how they do things" and is planned for release to Insiders at the end of October (10): you only need to demonstrate the operations once in Excel, and Copilot quietly records the actions and generates a rerunnable skill.
From "writing formulas" to "stating requirements" and then to "solidifying routines into skills," Microsoft is pushing Excel from a spreadsheet tool toward an execution layer that understands human language and grows its own workflows. For office workers long tormented by weekly reports and account reconciliation, the imaginative space opened by this move may be more tangible than getting a few more functions.