Dave Langer
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daveondata.bsky.social
Dave Langer
@daveondata.bsky.social
I help you build the skills
To unleash the power of AI
Technologies like Copilot in Excel
👇
https://daveondata.com/newsletter
📌 If you're ready to build the skills to unleash the power of Copilot in Excel, I want to help.

I have 11 hours of free crash courses:

Python
Logistic regression
K-means clustering
Decision tree machine learning

Join 8,587 preparing for the future: daveondata.com/newsletter
April 28, 2025 at 4:57 PM
I won't bore you with the rest of the back-and-forth.

Here's the things Copilot assumed I knew:

K-means clustering
Silhouette score for optimizing k-means
Principal component analysis (PCA)
Decision tree ML models
Permutation importance
Box plots

You need DIY data science skills to use Copilot!
April 28, 2025 at 4:57 PM
1 - Customer Segmentation
2 - Trend Analysis
3 - Predictive Modeling
4 - Basket Analysis
5 - Churn Analysis

When I asked for a recommendation, Copilot suggested option 1.
April 28, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Copilot responded:

"...it appears to represent customer behavior metrics, possibly related to transactions, activities, or engagement levels."

I told Copilot to assume customer behaviors and asked it what kind of analysis it would suggest for the data.

Copilot responded with 5 options:
April 28, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Copilot asked me to specify a deeper analysis.

I chose Copilot's correlation analysis suggestion.

In response, Copilot generated Python code to create a correlation heatmap table.

The correlation heatmap was interesting, but not super insightful.

I asked Copilot what the data might be.
April 28, 2025 at 4:57 PM
To Copilot's credit, it replied that it didn't know what to do with the data.

Copilot offered some suggestions for various types of analyses:

Trends
Correlations
Predictive Modeling

As usual, it doesn't take long before Copilot assumes the user has DIY data science skills.

Next...
April 28, 2025 at 4:57 PM
The table I used included data for:

Customer purchases
Customer demographics (e.g., age)

As usual, I chose Copilot's "Advanced analysis" option.

This option creates a new worksheet where Copilot generates Python code to perform the analyses.

Copilot loaded the table and profiled it...
April 28, 2025 at 4:57 PM
I have 11 hours of free crash courses covering:

Python
Logistic regression
K-means cluster analysis
Decision tree machine learning

Join 8,857 professionals building skills to impress their leaders: daveondata.com/newsletter
April 27, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Learning a subset of Python and data science handles 80+% of use cases.

Some examples:

K-means
Decision trees
Random forests

Here's the good news.

Any professional can learn these.

No advanced math required.

If you're ready to learn, I want to help you...
April 27, 2025 at 4:43 PM
4) Recognize hallucinations.

All AI technologies make mistakes (hallucinations).

**BUT**

If you don't have the right skills, how can you vet Copilot's?

Customer segmentation
Fraud detection model
Sales forecasts

So, do you want to play with 🔥?

Or do you want to impress your leaders?
👇
April 27, 2025 at 4:43 PM
3) Learn DIY data science.

You know that Copilot-generated code I just mentioned?

It's full of data science goodness:

K-means clustering
Decision tree machine learning
Time series forecasting models like ARIMA

This is how Copilot works its "magic."

There's a huge problem, though...
April 27, 2025 at 4:43 PM
2) Learn Python.

Make no mistake.

What excites your leaders about Copilot in Excel is clicking a button to get AI-generated:

Data insights
Advanced analytics
Time series forecasts

You know what they all have in common?

Copilot-generated Python code.

But there's more.
April 27, 2025 at 4:43 PM
1) Ignore "prompt engineering."

I've tested Copilot in Excel, and what it can do is impressive.

But here's the dirty little secret the AI bros won't tell you.

To prompt Copilot correctly, you have to know what you're doing.

You need to build your skills first.

Prompting comes after.
April 27, 2025 at 4:43 PM
📌 Ready to build skills for the AI-driven future of Microsoft Excel?

I have 11 hours of free crash courses:

Python
Logistic regression
K-means cluster analysis
Decision tree machine learning

Join 8,587 professionals building skills: daveondata.com/newsletter
April 26, 2025 at 3:56 PM
📌 Ready to build skills for the future of Microsoft Excel?

I have 11 hours of free crash courses that will jumpstart your skills:

Python
Logistic regression
K-means cluster analysis
Decision tree machine learning

Join 8,587 professionals building skills this weekend: daveondata.com/newsletter
April 25, 2025 at 9:10 PM
📌 P.S. - If you're ready to build skills for the future of Microsoft Excel, I want to help you.

I have 11 hours of free crash courses covering:

Python
Logistic regression
K-means cluster analysis
Decision tree machine learning

Get started this weekend: daveondata.com/newsletter
April 25, 2025 at 1:44 PM
📌 If you're ready to build skills for the future of Excel, I want to help.

I've got 11 hours of free crash courses covering:

Python
Logistic regression
K-means cluster analysis
Decision tree machine learning

Join 8,587 professionals building skills: daveondata.com/newsletter
April 24, 2025 at 2:18 PM
AI can make you 10x faster.

But you are still the expert in your business and your data.

Learn Python in Excel, even at a basic level.

That’s how you turn Copilot from a risk into your competitive advantage.

Python in Excel is your key.

Ready to take the wheel?
👇
April 24, 2025 at 2:18 PM