Solve Excel Challenges in 10 Minutes! The First Human-Level Excel Agent, Praised by Netizens}

Recently, we reported that 5 large models participated in this year's Shandong college entrance exam. To analyze their performance across 9 subjects, we painstakingly examined the detailed evaluation sheets, which was exhausting. If any AI could analyze tables with a single click, I would immediately praise it.

Now, finally, there is an AI to organize Excel tables!

This AI tool, called Shortcut, claims to be the “first human-level Excel Agent.” It can handle most Excel knowledge tasks at once, even solving complex cases in about 10 minutes with over 80% accuracy—10 times faster than humans.

^{(Fun fact: The Excel World Championship (MEWC) is organized by the Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC) team and supported by Microsoft. Contestants solve complex scenarios in Excel, with the 2024 finals set in a “World of Warcraft” theme, and a $5,000 prize.)}

Shortcut boasts near-perfect compatibility with Excel, allowing direct editing, importing, and exporting files. It not only performs basic operations but also handles complex financial modeling tasks, such as:

• Building multi-tab forecast upper limit tables (Pro Forma Cap Table).
• Analyzing 5,000 rows of CSV data, generating charts and dashboards for insights.
• Recursively fixing errors to ensure financial model accuracy.

It also has hidden features, like creating pixel art of Yoda.

As co-founder Nico demonstrated, he simply input: “Create a beautiful 50x50 pixel art of Yoda, placed in column B, showcasing his iconic features through shading and color.” Shortcut then began executing step-by-step: setting pixel grids, adjusting cells to squares, and creating Yoda’s ears and face with green shadows.

Of course, Shortcut has limitations, such as being lazy with formatting, poor performance in long multi-turn conversations, and potential context limits when handling large PDFs.

Currently in early preview, users can comment on X to get an invite code.

• Invite link: https://x.com/nicochristie/status/1940440489972649989
• Shortcut website: http://tryshortcut.ai

We tested it and found that logging in with a Google account even without an invite gives 3 free trials.

First-hand Experience

The Shortcut interface has two parts: the left resembles an Excel sheet, and the right is a chat area where prompts are entered to command it.

Click “Open Xlsx File” in the top-left to upload an Excel file, or create and save documents with one click.

For example, we uploaded five model challenge score sheets for Chinese exams, asked it to calculate total scores, then analyze each model’s performance across question types.

After receiving the task, it started thinking and asked for more info, like where to input total scores and how to analyze question performance. Once confirmed, it began planning.

The highlighted part is what Shortcut generated. I verified that its total scores and percentages were accurate.

It also accurately analyzed the performance of the five models in total score and question categories.

However, it missed some charts like bar graphs, comparison histograms, and radar charts, even after thorough search.

Next, we uploaded the detailed scores of five models on Question 23 of the Chinese exam, asking it to analyze the final scores and generate a table.

Unfortunately, Shortcut crashed: due to high demand during early access, it was under pressure. We tried multiple computers, but no luck.

We also asked it to generate a pixel art image of Mario, with the prompt: “Create a beautiful 50x50 pixel art of Mario, placed in column B, showcasing his iconic features through shadowing and color usage.”

Shortcut then asked for more details, like which version of Mario, pose, and expression.

Once confirmed, it responded immediately:

Here’s the classic 8-bit Mario, a bit abstract but still recognizable.

Overall, Shortcut handles simple table generation and data processing easily, like summing or calculating percentages. But for overly complex data, it often crashes.

While traditional Excel is powerful, its complexity and error-prone nature have long frustrated workers. This leaves huge potential for specialized agents like Shortcut, though they still have a long way to go.

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^{https://x.com/nicochristie/status/1940440499393106288}