Microsoft to Retire Excel's COPILOT() Function on September 14, 2026

Microsoft has announced that it will officially retire the COPILOT() function in Excel on September 14, 2026. The feature will be discontinued after a year of testing with Frontier and Insider customers. The function was originally planned for full rollout in January 2027, but will be taken offline following the testing phase.

The COPILOT() function allowed users to describe their needs in natural language, with Copilot automatically generating the corresponding results. Google has integrated a similar AI() function powered by Gemini into its Sheets application. Microsoft cited redundancy as the reason for retiring the function, noting that Copilot already offers multiple interaction entry points, including dynamic action buttons and a sidebar.

Microsoft said retiring the function does not mean canceling the related AI capabilities, and users can still trigger and use them through other entry points. The function performed well in text summarization, classification, generation, and web content lookup, but carried several limitations, including being unsuitable for numerical calculations, workbook-internal data lookups, and content management subject to legal or compliance constraints. In addition, using the function required an active network connection and a Microsoft 365 Premium subscription.

Google is still testing a similar AI() function through Workspace Experiments, and its future arrangements have not yet been announced.