The latest episode of Unpivot is out. This week, they discuss where to start with AI
Hosts :Wyn Hopkins,Sue Bayes, Giles Male and Fay Bordbar.
You are not alone.
In this episode of Unpivot, the team is joined by Fay Bordbar to tackle the question everyone in the Excel and Power BI world is asking: where do you actually start? From token costs and licensing confusion to agent teams and vibe coding pitfalls, this is an honest, practical conversation for anyone who has felt left behind by the pace of AI. No hype, no buzzwords, just real talk from people who are figuring it out.
Fay has a background in analytics and has spent the last 5 years focused on digital skills. She specialises in AI literacy and Copilot training, with a deep passion for Excel. She is involved in competitive Excel alongside Me and Giles (we paired up for the mixed doubles in the European Open this year) and co-hosted the Global Excel Summit.
You can watch the episode on You Tube HERE
Fays advice: “Start somewhere. Somewhere is better than nowhere.”
She agrees with Mark’s philosophy of “start small and snowball,” warning that people who try to revolutionise their biggest process first will get frustrated and feel defeated.
Fay and Giles shared a practical example of a step within the budgeting process. Take a Trial Balance, work through the steps manually first, then use Copilot to work through those steps and then ask it to return those steps in Power Query M Code.
This is one small, contained step, you end up with a deterministic repeatable Power Query solution, and you have made your first foray into Copilot.
This is an approach that I absolutely agree with, and is how I first made a start myself. I have recently started my blog series comparing standard Excel solutions to Copilot based solutions to help people to start to think about this. Here are the articles in the series so far:
Unpivot - Copilot vs Power Query
Row split - Copilot vs Power Query
Fay outlined the growing number of ways to customise Copilot in Excel:
Personalisation in both Copilot and Copilot for Excel
Skills
Workbook rules
I think the recent addition of these three personalisation features into Copilot for Excel will make it much easier for Excel users to start getting more value from Copilot.
I am presenting at the Bristol Excel Meetup in September on this very topic. You can register for free here: Copilot in Excel: Personalisation, Skills & Rules.
In the build up the meetup in September I will be sharing further articles and videos on Personalisation, Skills and Workbook rules in Copilot for Excel.
"You are not as far behind as you think; only a very small number of people are genuinely revolutionising processes right now."
🎥You can watch the episode HERE
🧢👕There is now Unpivot Merch : Unpivot Mech Shop
🎧It is also available on all Podcast apps if you prefer to listen.