Sourcetable AI Spreadsheet Aims To Democratize Data AnalyticsBy John P. Mello Jr.April 1, 2025 5:00 AM PTImage Credit: Sourcetable ADVERTISEMENTAchieve Financial Clarity with SettleGetting accurate product cost data is crucial for growth. Settle unifies invoices, payments, and inventory to help e-commerce operators uncover true costs and boost margins -- all in one platform. Get Started Today! During the dawn of the PC era, a single program was touted as the killer app that fired the market for personal computers. That program was a spreadsheet called VisiCalc. Now, another spreadsheet could have a similar impact on the AI market.Announced Monday, along with US$4.3 million in venture funding, the new spreadsheet, cloud-based Sourcetable, promises to use AI to democratize data analysis for everyone. While 750 million people use spreadsheets every day, only 20% know how to use basic analytical functions, according to Sourcetable.It explained in a statement that the AI spreadsheet eliminates the technical barrier that has plagued spreadsheets since their inception. Users simply tell the spreadsheet what they want done through natural language commands, and Sourcetables AI does the work for them. Instructions can be made via keyboard or through a hands-free voice control mode.Sourcetable added that the spreadsheets autopilot mode can complete a wide range of complex tasks that typically require advanced spreadsheet knowledge, including creating and editing financial models, generating spreadsheet templates, building pivot tables, cleaning data, creating charts and graphs, editing formatting, enriching data, and analyzing entire workbooks.In addition, the AI can understand data context without requiring users to pre-select ranges, interpret multiple ranges across different tabs, work with messy data, and seek human clarification when instructions are unclear.Smart AI Analyst On DemandWe make it easier for executives and managers to have a lot more digital intelligence at their disposal to do tasks, said Sourcetable CEO Eoin McMillan. We also make it easier for junior employees or recent grads to upskill very, very quickly.And we make it easier for people, whether theyre in marketing or sales or accounting or finance, to do both complex workflows, which may not have been possible before based on their skills and training, as well as save them a lot of time on simple workflows, which can be manually intensive, he told TechNewsWorld.Eoin McMillan, CEO, and Andrew Grosser, CTO, are the co-founders of Sourcetable. Photo by Sophia Morel.McMillan explained that partnering with AI is like having a brilliant digital analyst on demand. It allows you to do harder things easier and time-consuming tasks faster. Workflows that took hours can take minutes.Chris Sorenson, CEO of PhoneBurner, a power dialer SaaS company in Seattle, maintained that bringing AI into spreadsheets is a logical evolution. Spreadsheets are powerful, but traditional spreadsheets require a high level of expertise to manipulate large datasets, build formulas, and extract insights, he told TechNewsWorld. As someone with a sales background, I speak to this from experience.With AI, we are seeing a shift people can ask natural-language questions and get real answers without needing to be a data analyst, he said. Thats a major productivity unlock, especially for teams that dont have dedicated data pros on hand.I do think Sourcetables idea that everyone can become an analyst has merit, he continued. It lowers the barrier to entry for data-driven decision-making. But theres still a learning curve in understanding what the AI is doing behind the scenes and theres always a risk of misinterpreting data if you take results at face value without understanding the context. I really believe this could be similar to what VisiCalc did for PCs, he asserted. If AI can better turn spreadsheets into something smarter and more accessible, it could become a gateway to broader AI adoption across departments, but time will tell.Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst with SmartTech Research in Las Vegas, agreed. Just as VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3 brought computing to a broader audience by solving a practical need for accounting and planning, AI spreadsheets could do the same for AI, he told TechNewsWorld. They package powerful capabilities into a familiar interface, making AI accessible to a much wider group of users.Killer App or Spreadsheet Killer?Robin Patra, head of data, analytics, and AI at a large U.S. contractor that relied heavily on Excel workflows before moving to Sourcetable, maintained that just as VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3 popularized PCs, AI spreadsheets could catalyze mainstream AI adoption.VisiCalc transformed spreadsheets from paper-based ledgers to digital tools, driving Apple II sales, he told TechNewsWorld. Similarly, Sourcetables self-driving interface represents a paradigm shift.VisiCalc also enabled non-programmers to compute finances, he added. Sourcetable empowers non-technical users to execute advanced analytics. While Sourcetable could be a killer AI app, it could also be a spreadsheet killer. AI will likely make spreadsheets as we know them obsolete because it can take direction and potentially create better outcomes without needing the spreadsheet technology to arrive at this better outcome, explained Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst at the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Oregon.You just tell the AI what you need, input the data, and then get the improved results, he told TechNewsWorld.He cautioned that AI can have accuracy problems even with math. AI can introduce hard-to-identify errors, making the results unreliable, he warned.How AI Spreadsheets May Shape the FutureTo be clear, Vena added, one non-trivial downside is over-reliance on AI-generated output, which may not always be accurate or explainable.Theres also the risk of reduced skill development in traditional analysis methods and potential privacy concerns when data is processed through AI systems, he said.Sourcetables contention that AI can make everyone an analyst needs to be examined critically, he added. AI can level the playing field by enabling non-experts to run analyses and extract insights, he noted, but Sourcetable assumes that AI always delivers useful or correct answers which isnt guaranteed. Users still need judgment to interpret results, so like any AI technology, its not fail-safe.Looking forward, Sourcetable could influence not only spreadsheet applications but also consumer applications in general. AI spreadsheets could phase out roles centered on manual data entry, shifting demand toward AI management skills, Patra said.Natural language interfaces could also start to replace traditional GUI-based tools, he added.AI-powered consumer tools like Sourcetable could reshape productivity software, Vena said. They may lead to faster decision-making, more empowered individuals, and broader adoption of data-driven thinking.However, he continued, they also raise issues around data security, job displacement, and trust in automated systems. But putting those issues aside, this has the potential as a real breakthrough that both businesses and mainstream consumers could benefit from.John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.Leave a CommentClick here to cancel reply. Please sign in to post or reply to a comment. New users create a free account.More by John P. Mello Jr.view allMore in Artificial Intelligence