Use Excel Copilot to Analyze Risk Data

What This Does

Copilot in Excel helps you analyze risk data using natural language — asking for pivot analyses, trend charts, and formulas without needing to build them manually. Useful for summarizing loss event data, KRI trend analysis, and risk scoring.

Before You Start

• You have Excel open (desktop or web at excel.microsoft.com) with your risk data in a formatted table
• You're signed in with a Microsoft 365 Business or Enterprise account with Copilot enabled
• Your data is structured as a Table (select your data range and press Ctrl+T to format as table)

Steps

1. Format your data as a table

Select your data range (including headers like: Date, Risk Category, Loss Amount, Business Unit, Control Status). Press Ctrl+T and click OK. Copilot requires data to be in a proper Excel table format to work.

2. Open Copilot

In the Home ribbon, click Copilot (the spark icon). The Copilot panel opens on the right side of your spreadsheet.

3. Ask questions in plain English

Type your analysis request:

• "Summarize total losses by risk category for Q1 2026 and show the top 5 business units by loss amount"
• "Show a trend chart of KRI breach count by month over the last 12 months"
• "Flag any rows where loss amount exceeds $100,000 and control status is 'ineffective'"
• "Calculate the percentage change in operational loss events from Q4 2025 to Q1 2026 by category"

Copilot generates the analysis, chart, or formula and inserts it into your spreadsheet.

4. Review the output

Check the generated pivot tables and charts against your raw data for accuracy. Copilot can occasionally misinterpret column names — if results look wrong, rephrase the question with more specific column names.

Real Example

Scenario: You have a loss event database with 200 rows from the past year. You need to prepare a summary for the Operational Risk Committee showing total losses by category and quarter.

What you type: "Create a pivot analysis showing total loss amount by risk category (columns) and quarter (rows). Also add a column for number of events."

What you get: A pivot table is inserted into a new sheet with exactly that structure — ready to paste into your report.

Tips

• Always verify Copilot's calculations by spot-checking a few rows manually — especially for financial data going to senior management or regulators
• If Copilot doesn't understand your column names, rename them to something clearer first (e.g., "Loss_Amount" instead of "Col_D")
• Use "Add a column" requests to generate formula columns: "Add a column that calculates the residual risk score as inherent score minus control effectiveness score"

Tool interfaces change — if a button has moved, look for similar AI/magic/smart options in the same menu area.