Forum Discussion
Capabilities of Copilot in Web Browser vs. in Excel
Hello,
I have noticed differences of Copilot capabilities of M365 Copilot in web browser vs. in Excel itself.
For example, I want to count the number of lines in Excel file based on some parameters. When I put the prompt "Count the number of rows that have 'VTT' in column 'Product'." into Excel Copilot, it counts the correct number of rows.
When I put the same prompt, just starting with "In file /Sample_data.xlsx" into M365 Copilot in Teams or in the web browser, it returns incorrect count every time. The same happens when I upload the file directly to the Copilot window and not link it to Onedrive.
Mostly less (correct is 202 and Copilot returns 64 or so). I suspect it cannot access the entire document.
I have tried many similar simple tests with other prompts and it is often the same result - in Excel good, elsewhere bad.
Why does this happen?
Is it because the file is indexed only partially in some sort of index and web Copilot draws from that and cannot see the data itself?
How can I allow the Teams/web Copilot to access the data so the results are correct? I don't want to open Excel everytime to use the data inside.
Thank you very much!!
PS: When I test the same prompts with ChatGPT 4o mini, it responds correctly every time, so the data is AI-readable.
3 Replies
Hi adamhlavaty ,
Thanks for the test file and for the prompt. It allowed me to try to reproduce the behaviour.
I saw you wrote this post in Oct. 2024.
Here are my test results:
- Copilot in Excel (on Desktop): Count of VTT was 109 ✅
- Copilot in Excel (on Web): Count of VTT was 0 ❌
- Copilot Chat (Web mode on Edge): Count of VTT was 109 ✅
- Copilot Chat (Work mode on Edge): Count of VTT was 109 ✅
The test results lead me to the assumption: Copilot in Excel on Web App may be unable to access the entire data set in the Excel file.
I would expect Copilot in Excel (on Web) to say in such case:
"Sorry, I cannot give you the count 'cause of a lack of access to the data set. BUT I will give you a formula."
Here's some feedback worth sharing with Microsoft. 💪
Find attached screenshots showing the results of my tests.
AndreThiemannMS frankfalvey, This may be interesting for you too.
It's very possible that it's not indexing the whole document. Web browser versions have this challenge unfortunately many times.
Any idea how many people in your organization are using web version of Office vs desktop version?
I have same issue too. any leads or suggestions much appreciated, please?
