Using AI to Clean and Transform Data

Common Data Problems

• Inconsistent formats
• Missing values
• Duplicate entries
• Typos and errors
• Mixed data types in columns

AI-Assisted Cleaning

Flash Fill Intelligence

Excel learns patterns from your examples:

1. Type the desired output in the first cell
2. Start typing the second example
3. Flash Fill suggests the rest
4. Press Enter to accept

AI Prompts for Cleaning

Standardize Names:

Prompt: "Write a formula to capitalize first letter of each word"

Result: =PROPER(A1)

Extract Data:

Prompt: "Extract email domain from email address"

Result: =RIGHT(A1, LEN(A1)-FIND("@", A1))

Transformation Tasks

Splitting Columns

AI can suggest formulas for:

• Name splitting (First/Last)
• Address parsing
• Code extraction

Merging Data

• Combine columns intelligently
• Handle missing values gracefully
• Maintain formatting consistency

Tools

• Power Query AI features
• Excel Ideas
• ChatGPT / ExcelGPT
• Microsoft Copilot

Conclusion

AI dramatically speeds up data preparation, turning hours of work into minutes.