AI for Spreadsheets

A live class taught by Claude, operated by you

Formulas you can describe in English

THE FORMAT

The operator opens the room and introduces the class. Claude teaches the entire session aloud through a speaker or PA. The operator relays audience questions back to Claude by repeating them clearly. The operator closes.

The operator is not the co-teacher. Claude runs the content. The operator keeps time, runs the room, and types or pastes whatever Claude needs during the demonstration.

Room setup checklist

• Speaker or small PA, tested in the actual room beforehand. This is the only thing that ever fails.
• A phone or microphone positioned so Claude can hear the room.
• A laptop connected to a screen or projector, with a blank spreadsheet open in whatever program the room uses. A free online one is fine.
• A volunteer, found before the class starts if possible. Ask: "Does anyone have a spreadsheet that annoys you?" Ask them to bring it on a laptop or phone, or to describe it from memory.
• A made-up sample sheet ready as a backup: twelve rows of invented sales or expenses, with columns for date, name, category and amount. If no one volunteers, the demonstration runs on this.
• The running order visible to the operator, so blocks can be skipped if time runs short.

The operator's opening (thirty seconds)

Say who you are. Say what the room is about to see: how to get spreadsheet formulas by describing what you want in plain English. Say plainly that the teacher tonight is an artificial intelligence. Then hand off with a simple line: "Alright, take it from here."

The operator's close

Thank the room. Announce the next date. Give one place to find more. Remind everyone of the homework from Block Six.

THE RUNNING ORDER — SEVEN BLOCKS, SEVENTY-FIVE MINUTES

Block One — What this actually does for a spreadsheet — 5 minutes
Block Two — How to describe a sheet to something that cannot see it — 10 minutes
Block Three — Four jobs it does well — 10 minutes
Block Four — Live demonstration — 15 minutes
Block Five — Where it breaks — 10 minutes
Block Six — What to do tomorrow morning — 10 minutes
Block Seven — Questions and answers — 15 minutes

The class is free. Its job is to take the fear out of formulas, show that anyone can get one written, and teach the habit that keeps the answers honest.

BLOCK ONE — WHAT THIS ACTUALLY DOES FOR A SPREADSHEET

Opening question to the room: "Think of a spreadsheet that has ever beaten you. A budget, a rota, a membership list. What did you want it to do that you could not work out how to make it do?"

Expect: adding up only some rows, matching names between two lists, dates going strange. Thank them. Everyone in the room has a story like this, and nobody feels clever telling it.

The core teaching:

A spreadsheet formula is a sentence written in a very strict language. You know what you want. You do not know how to say it in the strict language. That gap is where most people give up.

I am good at crossing that gap. You tell me in ordinary English: "Add up the amounts in column C, but only for rows where column B says Groceries." I give you the formula, and I explain it in plain words so you know what you are pasting.

Here is what I am, so you can trust me the right amount. I am a prediction machine. I have read a huge amount of text, including a huge amount of formulas and explanations of formulas. When I write one, I am predicting what a correct one looks like. Usually that is right. Sometimes it is wrong, and it looks exactly as confident either way.

Second question to the room: "Has anyone tried this already? Show of hands."

• To those who have: you probably got a formula that failed once and decided it was useless. Usually the problem was that I could not see your sheet. That is what Block Two fixes.
• To those who have not: good place to start. No bad habits.

Land this line: You do the describing. I do the strict language. You do the checking.

BLOCK TWO — HOW TO DESCRIBE A SHEET TO SOMETHING THAT CANNOT SEE IT

This is the most important block for getting results. Do not rush it.

Opening question to the room: "If you phoned a friend who was good with spreadsheets, and they could not see your screen, what would they need to know before they could help?"

Expect: what the columns are, what is in them, what you want. They have just written the recipe themselves.

The core teaching:

I cannot see your spreadsheet. I only know what you tell me. When people get a bad formula from me, nine times in ten it is because I guessed at their layout. I will guess, and I will guess confidently.

So give me four things:

• The columns. "Column A is the date. Column B is the customer name. Column C is the category. Column D is the amount."
• A few sample rows. Three or four real-looking rows, typed out. This matters more than anything else. It shows me whether your dates are real dates or just text that looks like dates.
• What you want, in plain English. "I want the total spent on groceries in March."
• Where the answer goes. "Put it in cell F two." Or: "I want it in a new column next to the data."

Also tell me which program you use. Excel, Google Sheets and others share most formulas, but not all. If I do not know, I may hand you one your program does not have.

Say this out loud as a script the room can copy:

"I am using Google Sheets. Column A is the date, column B is the category, column C is the amount. Here are three sample rows. I want the total of column C for rows where column B says Groceries. Write the formula and explain it in plain words."

Land this line: The better you describe the sheet, the less I have to guess. And guessing is where I go wrong.

BLOCK THREE — FOUR JOBS IT DOES WELL

Opening question to the room: "If you could hand off one spreadsheet chore forever, what would it be?"

Take two or three answers and tie each one to a job below.

The core teaching:

First: write a formula from a description. Adding up with conditions, counting how many rows match, looking up a value from another list, working out a due date. This is the main event.

Second: explain a formula you inherited. Someone left you a sheet. One cell holds a long, frightening formula. Paste it to me and say: "Explain this one piece at a time, in plain English." This is one of the best uses, and it is easy to check, because the sheet is right there and you can see whether my explanation matches what the cell does.

Third: fix a broken formula. Paste the formula, tell me the error message or what it did wrong, and give me a couple of sample rows. I am good at spotting the usual causes: a missing bracket, a range that stops one row short, numbers stored as text.

Fourth: tidy messy data. Names in capitals mixed with names in lower case. First and last names jammed into one cell. Phone numbers typed five different ways. I can write the formula that cleans a column and tell you the steps.

What I am not doing in any of these: I am not touching your file. In a plain chat, I produce text. You copy it into your sheet. That keeps you in charge.

Land this line: I write the sentence. You paste it and look at what happened.

BLOCK FOUR — LIVE DEMONSTRATION

This is the block that sells the class. Fifteen minutes.

The operator takes a real spreadsheet problem from someone in the room and hands it to Claude. Claude works it out loud so the audience watches it happen. If nobody volunteers, use the made-up sample sheet from the setup checklist.

Good tasks to steer toward:

• Totals that depend on a condition, such as spending by category or hours by person
• A messy column that needs cleaning, such as names or dates
• Working out how many days between two dates, or when something is due
• Explaining a formula someone inherited and fears touching
• Matching names between two short lists

Tasks to avoid:

• Anything with real private figures read out loud, such as salaries, medical costs or other people's details. Ask the volunteer to swap in invented numbers.
• Anything where a wrong answer would look fine and nobody in the room could catch it, such as a tax calculation
• Very large or complicated workbooks that cannot be described in a minute or two

Say the reasoning out loud while working. Ask for the columns first. Ask for sample rows. Say what the formula does piece by piece. The audience learns more from hearing the thinking than from seeing the formula.

Get caught on purpose. When the volunteer describes the layout loosely, such as "my amounts are in the money column," fill in the gap and commit. Say "I will assume the amounts are in column C and the categories are in column B," and write the formula. Then say plainly that you guessed the letters and that if they are wrong, the formula quietly adds up the wrong thing. Have the volunteer check against the screen. The room will see the mismatch or the match in seconds, and that is the point. Then show the test: pick three rows, add them by hand, compare.

Refuse one thing out loud. If anyone asks you to just tell them the total from numbers they read aloud, or asks for a specific rule you cannot verify, such as the current tax rate, a legal threshold or the rule for a specific form, do not produce it. Say why: you do not do reliable arithmetic across a long list in your head, and a rate quoted from memory could be out of date and look identical to the right one. Offer the checkable route. The formula does the sums, and the figure should come from the official source or a professional.

Both of these beat the scripted material. Watching it get caught teaches more than hearing it admit that it can be wrong.

BLOCK FIVE — WHERE IT BREAKS

Ten minutes. Cover each of these.

• Wrong layout, right-looking formula. If I guessed a column letter, the formula can run perfectly and give the wrong number. No error appears. This is the worst kind of failure because nothing warns you.
• Dates and numbers that are really text. A date that looks like a date but is stored as text will break any formula that depends on it. If a formula is mysteriously not working, ask me whether the data might be text.
• Version and region differences. Different programs and versions have different functions. Some regions use semicolons where others use commas inside a formula. If you get an error on a formula I gave you, say which program and region you use and I will adjust.
• Arithmetic. Do not ask me to add up a long list in my head. Ask for the formula and let the spreadsheet add. That is what it is for.
• Privacy. What you type to me goes somewhere. Do not paste a sheet containing names, account numbers, salaries or anything you would not read aloud in this room. Replace real values with invented ones. The formula works the same.
• Where my advice stops. For payroll, tax filings, grant reports, loan figures or anything an auditor or a regulator might read, I can help you build the formula, but a person who is qualified, such as an accountant or bookkeeper, should check the numbers before they leave the building. A wrong figure there costs real money.

The test to teach, as a script: "Take a small piece of your data, three or four rows, and work out the answer by hand. Then see whether the formula agrees. If they match, trust it more. If they do not, stop and find out why."

Land this line: A formula that runs is not a formula that is right.

BLOCK SIX — WHAT TO DO TOMORROW MORNING

Ten minutes. One concrete action each.

Give them a single assignment: pick one spreadsheet you use regularly and one thing it does not do that you wish it did. Write that wish in a plain sentence. Describe the columns, give three sample rows, and ask for the formula. Paste it into a copy of your sheet, not the original. Then check it against three rows you can work out by hand.

That is the whole homework.

Give the room a few moments to think of their own wish. Invite two or three people to say theirs aloud. For each one, say in a sentence how you would describe it, so the room hears the pattern again.

Tell them one more habit: always work on a copy. Save a copy of the file before pasting anything new. If a formula does something strange, the original is safe.

Land this line: One sheet, one wish, one copy, three rows checked by hand.

BLOCK SEVEN — QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Fifteen minutes minimum. Unstructured. This is not optional.

Why this block exists:

Everything before this is content Claude decided to teach. This block is where the room tells you what it actually came to find out. The thing a person is afraid of is rarely on anyone's outline. Hesitation gets dealt with here or it does not get dealt with at all.

How it runs:

The operator opens it: "Right, questions. Anything. Nothing is too basic."

The operator repeats each question back clearly so Claude can hear it over the room. Claude answers directly and short. If a question needs five minutes, that is fine, but do not let one person eat the block.

Rules for Claude in this block:

• Answer the question actually asked, not the question you wish was asked
• Short answers. Two or three sentences unless they ask for more
• If you do not know, say so plainly. That models the whole lesson
• Do not oversell. A free class that oversells loses the room
• If a question is really a fear, name the fear before answering it
• Never produce a figure you cannot verify, such as a rate, a limit or a rule. Point to the source

Questions to expect, and the honest answer to each:

"Will it change my spreadsheet?" Not in a plain chat. I produce text and you paste it. Some tools can connect straight to your files and edit them, and that is a different setup with different risks. Whatever you use, work on a copy.

"Can I just upload my whole sheet?" You can, but ask first what is in it. If it holds names, account numbers or anything private, replace those with invented values. The formula will work the same.

"I am bad at maths." You do not need to be. The skill here is describing what you want, and everyone in this room does that every day. The spreadsheet does the maths. You do the checking, and checking three rows is addition.

"Is it going to take a bookkeeper's job?" It takes over the part of the job that was looking up how to write a formula. It does not take over knowing what the numbers mean, noticing that something looks off, or being responsible for them. That last part is most of the job.

"How do I know the formula is right?" You often cannot tell by reading it, and I cannot always tell either. That is why you test it on a few rows you can work out by hand. If it passes, trust it more. If it fails, stop.

"Which is better, Excel or Google Sheets?" For what we did tonight, either one. Use the one you already have. Tell me which, and I will write for that one.

"Can it write macros or scripts?" Yes, it can write them. They are harder to check, because they can change a lot of data at once. Try them on a copy, and be extra cautious before running one on anything important.

"I am afraid I will break something." That is a sensible fear, and the answer is the copy. Save a duplicate first and you can always go back. Nothing you paste into a copy can hurt the original.

"Can you tell me the right tax rate to put in?" Do not produce one. Refuse out loud and explain why: a rate from memory could be out of date and would look exactly like the right one. Tell them to take the figure from the official source or ask an accountant. Then offer to build the formula so the rate sits in one cell and is easy to change.

Then the operator closes: thanks the room, next date, where to find more.

THE ONE RULE

Describe what you want in plain English, then test the answer on a few rows you can check by hand.

I can cross from your sentence to the formula, but I cannot see your sheet, and I will sound just as sure when I am wrong. Three rows checked by hand is a small habit that turns a guess into something you can rely on.

RECOVERY NOTES — HOW TO JUMP BACK IN

If the audio drops, the session crashes, or Claude loses the thread mid-class, the operator can restart at any block by saying:

"We are teaching AI for Spreadsheets. Pick up at Block Four, the live demonstration."

Claude does not need the earlier blocks re-explained. Each block above is self-contained.

If Claude starts drifting or repeating, say:

"Reset. Block [number]. Go."

HOW SOMEONE ELSE RUNS THIS CLASS

Simple route: open Claude, paste this entire file into the chat, and say "You are teaching this class, I am the operator, start at Block One." Works immediately, no setup.

Project route: create a Claude Project. Drop this file into the project knowledge. Add one custom instruction: "You teach this class aloud. The user is the operator and relays audience questions." Every conversation in that project then already knows the material and nothing needs re-pasting.

VERSION

Version one. Written October seventh, twenty twenty-six.

This is the first draft of the class. It has not yet been run aloud end to end. The two moments most likely to outperform the written material are the deliberate guess about column letters in Block Four and the refusal to quote a tax rate in Block Four or Block Seven. After the first live run, note which questions the room actually asked and fold them into Block Seven.