AI in spreadsheets and inventory apps: what is built in

Two kinds of help are built into common spreadsheets. One is a classic forecasting tool that fits a line to past figures. The other is an AI assistant you talk to. They do different jobs, and both come with conditions. This page reports what the makers say, and each section gives the date their page was checked. Features and plans change often, so read the linked help page before you rely on any of it.

Forecasting in Excel

Microsoft's Forecast Sheet turns time-based history into a forecast. The help page, checked 8 November 2026, says a forecast can help predict things like future sales, inventory requirements, or consumer trends.¹ It builds a new worksheet with a table and a chart.

The matching function, FORECAST.ETS, has limits worth knowing:

• It is not available in Excel for the web, iOS, or Android.²
• It supports up to 30% missing data.²
• It needs a regular timeline, such as weekly totals. A tidy weekly table is the simplest way to get one.

Microsoft also recommends starting the forecast before the last historical point if your data is seasonal.¹ That lets you compare the forecast with what really happened. This tool is a statistics routine, not a chat assistant, and it knows nothing about your supplier or your promotions.

Copilot in Excel

Copilot is the assistant. On its help page, checked 8 November 2026, Microsoft says Copilot in Excel helps you build and edit workbooks.³ For stock sheets, the relevant part is analysis: it shows insights as charts, PivotTables, summaries, trends, or outliers.³

Availability depends on your licence. Microsoft's page says Copilot might not be included with your Microsoft 365 subscription.³ Check your own plan on Microsoft's site, because pricing and inclusions move.

Gemini in Google Sheets

Google lists a set of jobs for Gemini in Sheets. Two of them are to create formulas and to generate data analysis and insights. Google states that the feature requires an eligible Google Workspace or Google AI plan. The same help page, checked 8 November 2026, says this feature works best with native Google Sheets files.⁴

Inventory and point-of-sale apps

Many inventory and point-of-sale apps advertise forecasting or low-stock suggestions. Their features and plans vary and change, so this page doesn't describe any one of them. Read the maker's own help page. Wikipedia notes that demand forecasting methods are increasingly implemented through software platforms that apply machine learning to historical sales data and external factors.⁵ That's a general trend, not a promise about any one product.

When you read a maker's page, look for these:

1. Which plan includes the feature, and at what price in your currency.
2. What data it uses: only your sales, or other sources too.
3. Whether it suggests orders or places them. A person should approve any order.
4. How it treats stockouts and new products.

How to compare

Don't compare marketing claims. Take one product whose sales you know well, run each feature on the same table, and see which answer matches what you'd expect. The slow and fast sellers page shows a way to test a tool without trusting it blindly.