Excel's Copilot function is headed for the Recycle Bin
The Register
Microsoft is killing Excel’s COPILOT() cell function on Sept. 14, 2026. The AI stays in the side pane; the worksheet formula doesn’t.
Based on reporting by The Register — read the original for the full story.
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Microsoft is pulling the plug on Excel’s COPILOT() function on September 14, 2026, a little more than a year after it showed up in preview. The function let people talk to Microsoft’s AI assistant right from a worksheet cell, which sounded neat until Microsoft decided the side pane was enough.
That’s a sharp turn from the plan the company had before. COPILOT() was introduced in August 2025, first for Beta Channel users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license and later for Excel for the web users through the Frontier program. Microsoft had previously said it would make the function generally available in 2027. Now the Microsoft 365 roadmap says the company has decided not to move forward with it and apologizes for the inconvenience.
The official line is that this is meant to streamline the Copilot experience in Excel while still offering AI help through a supported interface. In other words: keep the assistant, lose the formula. Microsoft says customers can still use Copilot in Excel through the side pane for tasks like summarizing text, classifying data, generating content, and fetching information from the web.
Anyone who used COPILOT() in real workflows now has replacement work to do. Microsoft did warn from the start that the output should be reviewed and validated, especially for critical business decisions or reports. That caveat has aged badly for people who built around the feature anyway, but that’s the risk of relying on something that never left preview.
The move also fits Microsoft’s broader effort to make Copilot act more consistently across its apps. It has already tweaked other parts of the experience in response to feedback, including letting the Dynamic Action Button move out of the way and into the toolbar. Google Sheets still has a similar AI function, announced in June 2025.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is classic Microsoft: launch the shiny thing, let people build habits around it, then decide the experience needs “streamlining.” Preview labels are not a shield forever, but they sure are handy when a feature gets quietly demoted. The bigger pattern is clear enough: AI in office tools still feels less like software and more like a moving target with a help menu.
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