ExcelMaster vs Columns AI (formerly Columns)

Windows desktop Excel can run an autonomous agent add-in that plans multi-step spreadsheet work from plain-language prompts. ExcelMaster reads workbook structure across sheets, writes formulas or VBA/Python, executes changes inside Excel, and shows each step in a live sidebar. Finance teams, analysts, and operations staff use it for month-end close, variance reports, data cleanup, and macro automation without leaving the file.

Where Copilot and ChatGPT stop at suggested snippets, ExcelMaster closes the loop inside the workbook. It maps real sheet names, merged cells, and cross-sheet references before generating code, runs VBA or Python locally, verifies output, and retries on errors with automatic rollback. The product site cites internal benchmarks where template-style chat code needed far more edit rounds than agent execution on real user cases.

Dedicated Formula Assistant, VBA Assistant, and Cell AI modules cover formula dialogue, macro automation, and per-cell tasks like classification, keyword extraction, format conversion, sentiment scoring, and translation. Files stay on your machine; only relevant cell content goes to AI models when analysis is needed.

ExcelMaster requires Excel 2016 or later on Windows 10/11 (desktop, not Excel Online). Subscription plans start at $9.99 per month with a 3-day trial, and one-time credit packs are sold separately. The site also hosts free browser utilities for Excel, PDF, and Word conversions.

Columns AI takes messy files and live data sources through ingestion, automation, and chart publishing without making you stitch together separate tools. Drive ingests CSV, Excel, PDF, and images with OCR, Flow connects warehouses and apps with plain-language transformations, and Graph publishes brand-matched visuals you can embed or export.

Most BI tools assume your data is already clean and your team knows SQL. Columns splits the problem into three steps on purpose: structure files in Drive, automate sync and transforms in Flow, then ship client-ready charts from Graph without opening a separate design tool. You pay per row processed, and the Basic plan has no monthly base fee.

The site lists 12,000+ users across business operators, consultants, marketing and RevOps teams, analysts, and freelancers. Founder Shawn Cao previously built data infrastructure at Microsoft, Facebook, and Pinterest.