Microsoft Excel, now 40 years old, is increasingly being treated by technology leaders as a barrier to modern data management and AI adoption, even as it remains one of the most widely used tools in offices around the world.
How Excel Became Embedded In Workflows
Research from Acuity Training shows that two-thirds of office workers use Excel at least once every hour, making it one of the most relied-upon business tools in daily work. Its staying power is tied to its role in education and early career training, alongside Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, according to Tom Wilkie, chief technology officer of data visualization company Grafana.
Wilkie said Excel remains useful for small datasets, quick experiments, and simple charts. He said it allows people to test ideas and produce fast visual output, which is why it continues to be widely used for quick analysis.
Why Spreadsheets Create Data Risks
Mark Whitehorn, emeritus professor of analytics at Dundee University, said many organizations fail to separate data processing from data analysis and visualization. He described how departments often receive data, run it through spreadsheets using macros, and then output results without proper structure or oversight.
A macro automates a series of spreadsheet actions such as formatting or calculations with a single click. Whitehorn said these spreadsheets are often poorly documented, and when the person who created the macros leaves, remaining staff may not understand how to operate or update them. He added that this prevents organizations from controlling data centrally, securing it properly, or extracting it for wider analysis and AI systems.
That lack of control has led to real-world failures. In 2023, the UK recruitment process for anesthetists was disrupted by spreadsheet confusion. The Afghan data scandal was also linked to the sharing of an Excel file. In New Zealand, Health New Zealand confirmed last year that it was using an Excel spreadsheet as its “primary data file” to manage and analyze financial performance, which caused difficulties in consolidating data, introduced discrepancies, and prevented a real-time overview.
Efforts To Move Away From Excel
At Canadian telecoms company Telus, director of digital transformation and planning Moutie Wali has led a shift of hundreds of staff from Excel to a custom planning system. The aim is to improve data integration, automation, and AI readiness.
Wali said staff initially wanted to keep their existing Excel sheets and download data from the new system, but that was blocked. He said the spreadsheet could not be allowed to coexist with the new platform because it would undermine the goal of centralized data control.
Wali said Telus expects to save C$42 million, or about $30 million, a year by reducing misaligned capital through more accurate, integrated planning. Other teams within the company are now evaluating similar changes.
Microsoft Defends Excel’s Role
Microsoft said Excel remains widely used and continues to grow. A company spokesperson said Excel has evolved into a versatile platform over four decades and that monthly usage has risen consistently over the past six years. The spokesperson said it remains the default tool for data analysis, modeling, and reporting across industries.
Small Businesses Also Rethink Spreadsheets
The push away from Excel is not limited to large companies. Kate Corden, who runs Hackney Bike Fit in London, said her business needs to manage both personal customer data and technical bike information. Despite being an experienced Excel user from her corporate career, she said data can be easily lost or altered in spreadsheets.
She moved her operations to LinkSpace, a case management system that can be adapted for complex workflows. Corden said using one structured data system instead of multiple spreadsheets makes it easier to manage information as the business grows.
AI And Automation Drive The Shift
Julian Tanner, a PR executive in London and treasurer of a local charity, replaced Excel with an online accounting system that pulls data directly from invoices. The system uses built-in AI to generate customized reports on demand.
Tanner said the change allowed the charity to stop using a bookkeeper, saving more than £6,000 a year. He said that level of savings matters for organizations that need to keep costs low.
For large companies, the benefits also include standardized data that can be used by machine learning and AI systems. Whitehorn said some staff resist these changes because they feel they control the data through their own spreadsheets. He said that belief is misleading because the data belongs to the company, not the individual user.
He added that removing Excel entirely may not be realistic, and suggested that in the future, workers might need a new version of the old “boss key” to hide their spreadsheets instead.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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