intermediate 30 min
How to analyse a spreadsheet with AI
Get plain-English answers out of any dataset without knowing SQL or pivot tables.
Guide curated and reviewed byMark Barclay
Before you start
- A CSV or spreadsheet
- ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro or a SynaBot assistant with file uploads
Tools you'll use
- ChatGPT (Data analysis)
- Claude
- SynaBot
Steps
- 1
Clean the sheet first
AI is not magic. If your column headers are gibberish, so are the answers. Take 5 minutes to rename them properly.
- 2
Upload it
Use ChatGPT's data analysis, Claude's file upload, or paste a CSV into a SynaBot assistant.
- 3
Ask questions in plain English
"What's the total revenue by month?" "Which product had the fastest growth Q1 to Q2?" "Any customers with a big drop-off?"
- 4
Ask for the chart, not just the number
"Plot monthly revenue as a line chart with a trend line." Screenshots go straight into decks.
- 5
Verify the numbers
Always sanity-check totals against a formula you write yourself. AI arithmetic on messy data is not perfect.
What you'll have at the end
Plain-English answers and simple charts pulled from your own data.