Coupler.io Blog

Exploring the Google Sheets AI Formula: Your Quick Guide to Smarter Spreadsheets

  • Fitrianingrum Seto

    • Daily tasks in Google Sheets often involve more than just numbers. You may need to generate text for campaigns, summarize long customer reviews, categorize information from surveys, or quickly perform sentiment analysis on social media comments. These common, time-consuming tasks often slow down your workflow. 

    Fortunately, your spreadsheet is getting smarter. The new Google Sheets AI formula is an innovative addition. It’s built to automate your most demanding text tasks, significantly increasing productivity and refining your data analysis. 

    Dive into this guide to unlock the full potential of the AI function in Google Sheets and revolutionize how you work with data.

    Meet the AI function in Google Sheets

    So, what exactly is this AI function in Google Sheets? And how is it different from the familiar Google Sheets formulas you’ve been using for years?

    The AI function in Google Sheets is a new capability that leverages artificial intelligence to understand and generate natural language. Unlike traditional Google Sheets formulas, which perform calculations or manipulate data based on strict rules (such as SUM() or VLOOKUP()), the AI formula uses large language models (LLMs) to process text prompts and deliver intelligent responses.

    With this AI function in Google Sheets, you can:

    Is the AI function and Gemini the same?

    You might also be wondering: What’s the difference between this AI function and the Gemini panel you might see in Google Workspace?

    The Gemini panel is a broader conversational AI tool. It helps you with various tasks across Google Workspace apps, including Docs, Gmail, and Sheets. The AI function in Google Sheets, however, is a specific formula generator. You type it directly into a cell. This enables targeted, AI-powered text manipulation directly within your datasets.

    This exciting new capability is part of Gemini for Google Workspace. If you can’t find these AI features, your administrator may need to enable Alpha features for your organization. It’s also available to users in Google Workspace Labs.

    How to speak AI in Sheets: The basics 

    Interacting with the AI model in Sheets is straightforward. Think of it like giving instructions to a highly intelligent assistant. You type what you want in plain English. 

    We’ll guide you through the syntax, provide examples, and demonstrate how to use it.

    Syntax

    The basic structure of the AI formula:

    =AI("prompt", [optional_cell_reference])

    The AI function has two arguments:

    Basic examples 

    Examples with one argument: These examples don’t require external data from a cell; the AI generates content or provides insights based solely on your instructions.

    Examples with two arguments: These examples demonstrate how the AI function can be more dynamic by interacting with your existing data in Google Sheets.

    How to use the AI formula in a sheet

    Here’s a quick step-by-step tutorial on how to use the AI function in your spreadsheet:

    That’s it! The AI function will then process your request and populate the cell(s) with the generated content. 

    Note: When you click “Generate and insert” or “Refresh and insert,” the content gets added to your sheet. It’ll show up as an edit by you in the version history.

    What you can do with the Google Sheets AI formula

    The Google Sheets AI formula can transform how you handle text-based tasks directly within your spreadsheets. 

    Imagine you run a small business selling flowers online. You’re juggling multiple ad platforms, gathering customer surveys, sending marketing emails, and so on. You constantly pull data into Google Sheets for a central repository and analysis. The AI formula in Google Sheets can revolutionize how you manage your workflow.

    Let’s explore some of the most impactful ways you can integrate this formula into your daily workflow.

    Generate text

    The AI function in Google Sheets excels at creating new content. You give it a prompt in plain language, and it generates text based on your instructions. This is incredibly useful for speeding up content creation in marketing.

    Examples

    Limitation

    While the AI model is powerful, the accuracy of generated content can vary. It may occasionally produce text that sounds generic, is factually incorrect, or doesn’t perfectly match your brand’s specific tone. 

    Always review and edit the output to ensure it aligns with your brand voice and factual requirements. Think of the formula generator as a creative assistant, not a final decision-maker.

    Summarize information

    Drowning in long reports, extensive customer feedback, or detailed project notes? The AI function can quickly extract key takeaways, turning large blocks of text into digestible summaries. This is incredibly useful for quick data analysis.

    Examples

    Limitation

    AI summaries may occasionally overlook subtle nuances or specific details crucial for in-depth analysis. For critical decisions, always refer to the original, full text. The AI model provides a quick overview, not a replacement for a thorough review.

    Categorize information

    Organizing unstructured text data, like diverse customer inquiries or product reviews, can be tedious. The AI function in Google Sheets can automatically tag and sort your data, making data organization much more efficient and supporting better data analysis.

    Examples

    Limitation

    The accuracy of categorization depends heavily on the clarity and distinctness of your defined categories. If categories overlap or the input text is ambiguous, the AI model might struggle to make a precise judgment. 

    Always provide clear, mutually exclusive categories when prompting. You may also encounter instances where the AI function misinterprets context, necessitating human oversight to correct.

    Sentiment analysis

    The AI function can help you determine the emotional tone of text data, making sentiment analysis accessible directly in your spreadsheet. This is incredibly useful for understanding how your customers feel about your brand, products, or campaigns.

    Examples

    Limitation

    Sentiment analysis can be challenging for AI models due to the complexities of human language, including sarcasm, humor, and cultural nuances. A comment like “Oh, wow, the delivery of dead flowers was just spectacular!” would be difficult for an AI to accurately process as Negative. For critical interpretations, human judgment remains essential. 

    Can the AI function work with numeric values?

    You’ve seen how the Google Sheets AI formula can completely change how you handle text-based tasks. 

    But numbers? That’s a whole other story.

    For many businesses, numbers drive decisions. From sales figures to ad spend to customer acquisition costs, understanding your metrics is critical. However, the AI function in Google Sheets is primarily focused on text manipulation within individual cells. It won’t analyze why revenue dropped last month, identify patterns across multiple data sources, or answer strategic questions like “Which marketing channels drive our highest-value customers?”

    Modern business analysis requires something more powerful: conversational analytics with AI that can query datasets and deliver strategic insights in seconds. This is exactly what Coupler.io delivers through its AI Integrations.

    Think of it this way:

    Instead of building complex formulas or waiting for reports, you can simply ask questions in plain English:

    Talk to your data in AI using Coupler.io

    The idea of AI integrations by Coupler.io is pretty simple:

    You create a data flow from your data source and integrate it with an AI tool like Claude or ChatGPT.

    With Coupler.io, you do not load data to AI but only share access. AI tools can only query your shared datasets and return results based on your request. This is more secure than using the native connectors in AI tools.

    What makes AI Integrations different from other AI analytics tools?

    Coupler.io addresses the core challenges that businesses face when trying to get real value from their data: scale, accuracy, and security.

    Designed to handle massive datasets accurately

    Unlike chat interfaces that struggle with large data volumes or return approximate answers, Coupler.io processes millions of rows across multiple sources while maintaining calculation accuracy. There’s no “black box” mystery about where numbers come from. The system shows you exactly how your data is being processed.

    When you ask about revenue trends or campaign performance, you get precise calculations you can trust, not AI hallucinations or estimates.

    Built for multi-source business intelligence 

    Most AI tools can query a single database or dataset. Coupler.io connects over 330 business data sources, including spreadsheets, marketing platforms, CRMs, finance systems, product analytics, and more. This means you can ask cross-platform questions like: “How do our top-performing Facebook campaigns correlate with customer lifetime value in Salesforce?“

    Security architecture designed for business data 

    Your sensitive business data never flows directly to AI models. Instead, everything passes through Coupler.io’s secure transformation layer, where you maintain complete oversight and control. You can use filters and column management to select exactly which data fields get analyzed. It takes a couple of clicks to exclude sensitive information like customer names, email addresses, or financial details from being shared with AI. 

    How integrate data with AI using Coupler.io

    Step 1: Create a data flow from your data sources 

    You can build a custom data flow from scratch or choose from pre-built data set templates if you’re loading data from marketing platforms (Google Analytics, HubSpot, Facebook Ads), sales tools (Salesforce, Pipedrive), finance systems (QuickBooks, Xero), and more.

    Step 2: Prepare your data set

    Think of this step as preparing a filtered dataset specifically for AI analysis, since you gain complete control over what reaches the AI:

    Step 3: Connect to your AI tool

    Choose your destination AI platform (Claude, ChatGPT, or others) and follow the instructions to configure the integration. It’s mandatory to run the data flow before you start a conversation about your data in AI.

    Step 4: Ask questions and get insights

    Now you can have natural conversations with your business data through your AI tool of choice. Ask strategic questions, explore patterns, dive deeper with follow-up queries – all while knowing that the AI only has access to the specific, filtered information you’ve shared.

    The AI analyzes what you’ve provided, identifies trends, and delivers actionable insights. Meanwhile, your sensitive raw data, customer records, and confidential business information remain safely within your own systems.

    Coupler.io AI Insights for deeper analysis

    Beyond conversational analytics, Coupler.io also offers AI Insights – an automated analysis feature built into Coupler.io dashboards. Powered by the latest version of Claude, AI Insights automatically interprets all datasets on your entire dashboard, providing summaries of key trends and actionable recommendations.

    While AI Integrations lets you ask any question about your data, AI Insights proactively surfaces important patterns, alerts you to anomalies (like sudden spikes in customer acquisition cost), and suggests potential reasons or solutions based on your connected data.

    Note: AI insights is only available for Coupler.io dashboards, not templates for external BI tools.

    As a result, you’ll spend less time searching for answers and more time making wise, informed decisions.

    AI formula in Google Sheets vs. AI integrations by Coupler.io

    Both Google Sheets AI formulas and Coupler.io AI Integrations leverage artificial intelligence, but they serve fundamentally different purposes in your data workflow. 

    FeatureGoogle Sheets AI FormulaCoupler.io AI Integrations
    Primary purposeText manipulation within cellsConversational analytics of data in AI
    Best forTactical content creation and cell-level operationsCross-platform analysis and conversational insights
    Data scopeCurrent spreadsheet only330+ business applications simultaneously
    Query methodCell formulas with specific syntaxNatural language conversations
    Processing capacityHundreds of rows efficientlyMillions of rows across multiple platforms
    Technical skill requiredBasic spreadsheet formula knowledgeNone – ask questions in plain English
    Output formatText within spreadsheet cellsConversational insights with actionable recommendations

    Ready to see how AI can transform your data analysis and workflow? Start your 7-day free trial of Coupler.io today and experience the power of AI Insights for your own dashboards!

    Try Coupler.io for free

    Beyond the basics: Combination of AI function with other Google Sheets formulas and features

    The AI function in Google Sheets becomes more powerful when combined with standard formulas and features. You can create complex prompts and use the AI output to automate tasks. This makes your spreadsheet more intelligent and helps you manage workflows more effectively.

    Building more dynamic prompts with concatenation 

    Often, your AI formula prompt needs to pull information from multiple, separate cells to create a complete and dynamic request. You can easily construct this full prompt string before passing it as the first argument of the AI function. How? By using the ampersand (&) operator for concatenation. This is a common and flexible way to join text strings in Google Sheets.

    Let’s say you own an online shop. You have a spreadsheet with details about new leads. Column A has their names, and Column C lists what they’re interested in. You want to create quick, personalized emails for each lead.

    Here’s a simple formula you can use in a cell (like D2) to generate an email draft:

    =AI("Write a short introductory email to a new lead named " & A2 & " mentioning their interest in " & C2 & ". Keep it friendly and concise.")

    This formula pulls the name from A2 and their specific interest from C2 to create a unique email for every lead.

    With this method, the AI formula can create personalized content for each row, even if your data isn’t in a continuous range of cells.

    Using the AI output 

    Once you have your AI-generated results, what’s the next step? From actionable insights to full automation, there are numerous ways to leverage the data.

    Managing workflow

    If you manage customer feedback, the AI function can help prioritize follow-ups. For example, you might keep customer reviews in Column C and run sentiment analysis with AI in Column D.

    You can flag negative reviews for immediate attention. For example, you could use this formula in Column E:

    =IF(D2="Negative", "Urgent follow-up needed", "No action needed")

    This approach streamlines decision-making. Here’s what else you can do with AI outputs:

    Automation 

    Automation takes things up a level. For example, you can automate sending emails right from Google Sheets. This is possible with Google Apps Script or third-party tools like Zapier.

    If you’re comfortable with a bit of coding, you could write a script that automatically reads the email drafts generated by your AI formulas. Here’s the idea:

    It’s exciting that you can transform your Google Sheets into an AI-powered email marketing system. With this setup, you can save time and reduce manual work. You don’t need to write or send emails one at a time. Plus, everything stays organized in your sheet, from draft emails to sent statuses.

    Key takeaway

    By combining the AI formula with features like concatenation, conditional logic, and automation tools, you can manage workflows, save time, and boost productivity. Explore these possibilities, and you’ll discover just how powerful your spreadsheets can become.

    Navigating the limitations, accuracy, and responsible use

    AI-powered tools like Google Sheets AI can transform your workflow, but they’re not without their boundaries. It’s important to understand their limits and use them responsibly. 

    Here’s what you need to know.

    Technical limitations

    Here are some technical aspects to be aware of when using the AI formula:

    Accuracy limitations

    Even the most advanced AI model isn’t perfect. 

    Your Google Sheets AI formula might misinterpret data or give incomplete results if the input is unclear.

    To improve accuracy, you can:

    Ethical and responsible use

    Using the AI formula in Google Sheets responsibly is just as important as knowing its strengths. As you integrate AI features into your workflow, consider these key tips for responsible use:

    By staying mindful of these points, you can fully harness the power of AI while keeping your work ethical and secure.

    Transform your entire data workflow with AI

    You’ve learned how Google Sheets AI formulas can revolutionize text-based tasks within your spreadsheets – from generating content to analyzing sentiment. But why stop there?

    Take your data analysis to the strategic level:

    Coupler.io gives you both:

    Integrate your data with AI for conversational analytics

    Try Coupler.io for free
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