Excel + AI for Analysts & Managers

Excel is the first skill tested in Data Analyst, MIS Executive and Business Analyst interviews, and the tool managers use every day to make decisions. This course teaches the Excel that actually gets asked and actually gets used.

You'll work through one real e-commerce sales file for the whole course, just like an analyst's first week on the job. A messy data dump arrives on Monday, and a CEO-ready dashboard goes out on Friday. Along the way, you'll use free AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude) to write formulas, spot data problems and draft reports, and you'll learn to check AI's answers before you trust them.

Taught by a trainer who has worked as a data analyst in e-commerce and wealth management, and with senior leadership at a large automobile company's head office. Real work, not theory.

COURSE CURRICULUM: 9 modules · 49 lessons · about 4.5 hours

Module 0: Welcome: your first week as an analyst

• See the finished dashboard you'll build
• Set up your practice files, Excel and a free AI account

Module 1: Work like a pro, not a typist

• The Excel screen in 5 minutes
• Excel Tables and why every analyst starts with them
• 15 shortcuts that save an hour a day
• Relative vs absolute ($) references, freeze panes

Module 2: Monday: clean the messy data

• Use AI to find every data-quality problem in a file
• TRIM, PROPER and UPPER to fix messy text
• Standardise values with Find & Replace
• Text to Columns and Flash Fill
• Fix mixed date formats
• Remove duplicates and handle blanks
• Data validation dropdowns to stop future mess

Module 3: Tuesday: formulas that run businesses

• SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MIN, MAX
• IF, IFS, AND, OR to tag and flag orders
• SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, AVERAGEIFS
• XLOOKUP to bring in cost price and calculate profit
• VLOOKUP for interviews, plus IFERROR
• Text and date functions: TEXT, WEEKDAY, EOMONTH, NETWORKDAYS
• Let AI write formulas with a simple prompt framework
• Catch the AI mistake: the 3-check rule

Module 4: Wednesday: answer the business questions

• Your first pivot table in 2 minutes
• Group by month and quarter
• % of total, top 10 and sorting
• Calculated fields for profit and margin
• Slicers and filters
• Ask AI what a CEO would ask, then answer it with pivots
• Where Excel starts to struggle

Module 5: Thursday: build the dashboard

• Pick the right chart for the message
• Pivot charts for trend, category and city
• KPI cards: revenue, orders, average order value, return rate
• Conditional formatting that tells a story
• Lay out the dashboard with AI's help
• Make it interactive with slicers and a timeline
• Polish, protect and export to PDF

Module 6: AI as your analyst assistant

• ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Claude for Excel work
• Writing strong prompts that get accurate answers
• Upload a file and let AI analyse it, then verify the numbers
• One-click report: a macro written by AI
• Copilot in Excel, if your company provides it
• Data privacy: anonymise before you paste

Module 7: Friday: present to the CEO

• What senior leaders look at in the first 30 seconds
• The 5-line insight summary
• Write the update email with AI, then make it yours

Module 8: Capstone and what's next

• Solve a new dataset on your own, then compare with the solution
• 10 Excel interview questions you will be asked
• Your roadmap from Excel to SQL, Power BI and Python

Who this course is for:

• Freshers and job-seekers preparing for Data Analyst, MIS Executive or Business Analyst interviews
• Working professionals and managers who want to analyse data and report faster
• Anyone who uses Excel daily and wants to use AI to save time

No paid tools needed. Works with any recent Excel version, including free Excel on the web, and free AI accounts.