Making technology more accessible

I’ve been a power user of spreadsheets for a few decades now. (For clarity, I describe the line between “normal” and “power” as the difference between regular formulas and array formulas).

A couple of weeks ago, I realised that, beyond the basic sums and whatnot, I hadn’t actually written any of my own formulas for months. This is now one of the most common use cases for me using GenAI. Here’s an example of how easy it is.

Instead of having to Google some convoluted date-matching formula and remind myself how to use it since the last time in 2003, I did this:

Notice how my prompt was a screenshot and a minimal description of what I needed. ChatGPT doesn’t get everything right every time, but it often does a wonderful job of “connecting the dots” and guessing user intent correctly, as it did here.