Arcwise AI vs Columns AI (formerly Columns)

Arcwise AI is a spreadsheet analytics copilot and decision platform for teams that live in Google Sheets and warehouse data. It began as a Chrome extension for ChatGPT-powered formulas and data cleanup, and now also sells traceable metric explanations tied to Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, and internal documentation.

The Sheets extension still ships as a free Chrome add-on with keyboard shortcuts, $AI.TRANSFORM and $AI.CLASSIFY functions, and PDF table extraction. That side competes with formula copilots, while the platform side targets analysts who need audited answers instead of generic chatbot guesses.

Arcwise backs explanations with source tracing rather than open-ended model text, which matters when finance or ops teams need to defend a number in a review. The stored listing URL at /old-ai now returns 404, so the live product homepage is arcwise.app.

Columns AI is an end-to-end data platform that connects messy files and live sources, automates transformations, and turns the results into charts and dashboards you can share. It is built around three products: Drive for ingesting and structuring files, Flow for no-code data pipelines, and Graph for branded visualizations.

The platform targets teams that need reliable data workflows without standing up a full engineering stack. You can connect Google Sheets, Airtable, Notion, Excel, databases, Snowflake, HubSpot, QuickBooks, Gusto, and HTTP APIs, then describe transformations in plain language instead of writing SQL.

Columns AI fits business operators, consultants, marketing and RevOps teams, analysts, and freelancers who need to move from raw inputs to client-ready visuals. Founder Shawn Cao previously built large-scale data infrastructure at Microsoft, Facebook, and Pinterest.