As 2025 comes to a close, one thing feels clearer than ever: Excel is no longer just something you use. It’s something you belong to.
This year brought major product innovations, many powered by AI, but it also delivered something just as meaningful: cultural moments that reminded us how deeply Excel is woven into work, learning, creativity, and even competition around the world.
From celebrating a milestone birthday, to watching spreadsheets light up arenas and streaming platforms, to shipping some of our most ambitious product updates yet, 2025 was a year we’re incredibly proud of. And none of it would have happened without you.
Let’s take a look back.
A Cultural Year for Excel
Excel Turns 40!
In 2025, Excel celebrated its 40th birthday—four decades of helping people think, analyze, build, and decide more effectively.
What began as a simple spreadsheet application in 1985 has evolved into a foundational tool used by hundreds of millions of people across industries, roles, and continents. Over the years, Excel has adapted to new technologies, new ways of working, and entirely new audiences, without losing the core flexibility that made it so powerful in the first place.
We marked this milestone by reflecting on Excel’s past and, more importantly, its future: one where data literacy, accessibility, and creativity continue to expand.
👉 Read more in Excel Turns 40: Join the Celebration!
The Excel World Championship Goes Mainstream
If you needed proof that spreadsheets have officially entered pop culture, look no further than the Excel World Championship (EWC).
In 2025, the competition reached new heights with larger audiences, more global participation, and unprecedented attention. What began as a niche idea has grown into a true esports-style event that proves how dynamic, fast-paced and thrilling Excel can be in expert hands.
Watching competitors solve complex problems live under pressure and at speed was both entertaining and inspiring. It showed that Excel mastery is a real skill built through practice, creativity and deep understanding.
👉 Read more in Congrats to the Winners of the 2025 MECC & MEWC!
Spreadsheet Champions Brings Excel to the Big Screen
This year also saw the release of Spreadsheet Champions, a documentary that follows six students from different countries on their unique journeys to achieve excellence in competitive Excel.
More than just a story about formulas and grids, the film is about community, curiosity, and the joy of solving problems together. It captured something we see every day across forums, classrooms, livestreams, and workplaces: Excel brings people together.
For many of us on the Excel team, seeing these stories told so thoughtfully was deeply moving—and a powerful reminder of who we’re building for.
👉 Read more in Celebrating the Premiere of “Spreadsheet Champions” at the Melbourne International Film Festival
A Breakthrough Year for the Product
While Excel’s cultural presence grew, 2025 was also one of the most ambitious product years in recent memory.
Agent Mode in Excel
One of the biggest shifts came with Agent Mode in Excel—a new way to approach work that moves beyond asking for help, to delegating outcomes.
Instead of manually building step-by-step solutions, users can now describe goals and let Excel reason through the steps: gathering data, applying transformations, and explaining results along the way. It’s a meaningful step toward making Excel not just reactive, but proactive.
Agent Mode doesn’t replace expertise; it amplifies it.
👉 Read more in Building Agent Mode in Excel
The COPILOT Function Arrives
In 2025, Copilot became more deeply embedded directly into the Excel grid with the introduction of the COPILOT function.
For the first time, users can call Copilot like a formula, bringing AI-powered reasoning directly into cells alongside traditional Excel functions. This bridges the gap between natural language requests and structured spreadsheet logic, unlocking entirely new workflows.
It’s one of the clearest examples yet of how AI and spreadsheets can work together seamlessly.
👉 Read more in Bring AI to your formulas with the COPILOT function in Excel
Formula Completion Gets Smarter
Excel has always been about speed and precision, and in 2025 we made writing formulas easier than ever with improved formula completion.
Smarter suggestions, better context awareness, and faster recommendations mean less time remembering syntax, and more time focusing on insights. Whether you’re learning Excel or pushing it to its limits, formula completion now meets you where you are.
Small improvements like this matter. They add up to a smoother, more confident experience for everyone.
👉 Read more in Introducing formula completion - A new way to write formulas in Excel using Copilot
Thank You for an Incredible Year 💚
If there’s one theme that defines Excel in 2025, it’s this: progress powered by community.
Every feature we shipped and every moment we celebrated was shaped by customer feedback, creator experimentation, MVP insight, and everyday use in the real world. You pushed us, inspired us, and reminded us why Excel continues to matter—40 years on.
As we head into 2026, we’re excited to keep building with you.
Thank you for being part of the Excel story.
