Forum Discussion
Looking for advice on leveraging AI for Excel in a price-sensitive, third-world country
I work for a training company in a price-sensitive, third-world country and have been conducting training in MS Excel for close to 2 decades. My company has asked me to design Excel training that teaches how to use AI to improve productivity. Ethical considerations aside, it’s something I have been thinking about for a while.
The main roadblock I see is the average purchasing power of participants in our market. Right now the cheapest Copilot plan is USD 99.99/yr for MS 365 Personal. The cheapest plan for Business or Enterprise is USD 18/user/month for MS 365 Copilot business (billed at USD 216/user/year). I’ve been casually speaking with the participants in training sessions and most are happy with the free chatbot versions of Copilot/ChatGPT/Gemini that almost no one would upgrade to a paid subscription to integrate AI with Excel - they describe their problem to the AI, send screenshots or upload files and then try and implement the solution that’s returned.
It’s similar in the business/enterprise context. Larger organisations may have paid for AI subscriptions for their employees but those are few in number. Most businesses in this market are classified as Small-Medium-Enterprises (SMEs) and feedback from participants is that their management would not likely approve of the cost.
It’s worth mentioning that my training company does not provide computers instead requiring participants to bring their own laptops with valid Excel licences though we standardize things as much as possible e.g. Windows only, no tablets etc… This means if we design a training that requires a paid Copilot subscription, then it is up to the participants to buy it for themselves which I don’t think many of them will.
After speaking with management, they are open to designing a training that uses the free AI chatbots. I’m fine with that but don’t know how much value that would add to what people are already doing. I’m quite sure this strategy is management trying to revive Excel training which used to be top-sellers (demand fell off ever since COVID) and they see other Excel training incorporating AI so want to follow suit.
So right now the most viable option is to create training that teaching using free AI chatbots. But I’d like to hear the opinions of others - what other options do you see for a price-sensitive, third-world market?
And yes, I did ask AI how Excel users can leverage AI without paying for expensive subscriptions and it basically said “use the free chatbots”.
1 Reply
I'd build it on the free chatbots, but sell the skills around them, not the chatbot itself. Your participants already paste a problem in and try what comes back. What most of them can't do yet is ask well, spot a wrong answer and fix it. That's teachable, and it won't date as fast as a tour of Copilot buttons.
Modules I'd include:
Asking well: describe the layout (sheet names, columns, which row holds the headers), paste 5 to 10 sample rows, show the result you expect for those rows, and say which Excel version you have. That last part matters more than people think.
Version and region traps: chatbots often answer with XLOOKUP, FILTER or UNIQUE, which don't exist in Excel 2016 or 2019. In regions that use a comma as the decimal separator, formulas need semicolons between arguments, and a localized Excel uses translated function names. Give them exercises where the AI answer fails for exactly these reasons and have them fix it.
Checking the answer: test the formula on rows where you already know the result, include the awkward cases (blank cells, numbers stored as text, duplicates), and step through it with Evaluate Formula on the Formulas tab. "It gave me a number" stops being the test.
Data safety: no client, salary or customer files in a free chatbot. Teach them to make a small fake sample with the same structure, which also tends to get better answers.
The tools they already paid for: Flash Fill (Ctrl+E), Quick Analysis, Recommended PivotTables and Power Query come with their licensed Excel and cover a lot of what people ask a chatbot for. Pair them: let the chatbot explain a formula or write the Power Query steps, then do the work in Excel.
A short optional Copilot demo for the few whose employers pay for it is fine, but I wouldn't build the course around it.
(Drafted with AI assistance and checked before posting.)
