Over the years, I've seen many comments dismissing Excel. But as many people who've worked in enterprises know, Excel is a godsend for manipulating reams of data for non-programmers who can think analytically. Of course, complex formulae and extensive VBA functions become a tech debt over time. But implemented properly, it provides a solution which doesn't require huge management approvals and increases productivity.
I'm sure that these new features will find a lot of use amongst many people. And seeing these Excel innovations is heartening.
I work at an airline where Claude is replacing data analysis tools like excel, data visualization tools like power bi, all that's left is dynatrace because it does it all automatically like Claude does. Many bespoke data processing or data analysis tools for non programmers are being replaced by Claude suscriptions, like excel, power bi, spss, tableau, those are the most used I think. No Python data analysis nor big data tools like pandas, numpy, apache superset are being replaced though
I would argue using Claude in replacing a spreadsheet is potentially more of a tech debt than the spreadsheet itself. Now if you would use Claude to build a point application that performs the same standard analysis it might be better, but only marginally so.
Their only complaint with Claude has been hallucinations when using it for things like remembering business rules, but that's an easy fix since it has no Access to them and the company is large enough to be different from other companies which causes the hallucinations
thunderbong · · focus · HN ↗
I'm sure that these new features will find a lot of use amongst many people. And seeing these Excel innovations is heartening.
alightsoul · · focus · HN ↗
cgio · · focus · HN ↗
KellyCriterion · · focus · HN ↗
If I select whatever datarange in Excel, I know I can rely on the numerical output.
Though, Claude became much better with this
alightsoul · · focus · HN ↗