How to Use Quick Analysis in Google Sheets with AI

You don't need to be a spreadsheet expert to find meaningful stories in your data. Google Sheets has a built-in AI assistant that can do the heavy lifting for you, turning rows of raw numbers into clear, actionable insights in seconds. This guide will walk you through exactly how to use these smart features to perform quick analysis, create charts, and answer questions about your data using simple, everyday language.

What Exactly is AI-Powered Analysis in Google Sheets?

At its core, quick AI analysis in Google Sheets is about using built-in tools to automatically surface trends, patterns, and summaries from your dataset without you needing to write a single formula or build a pivot table from scratch. The main feature that makes this possible is called Explore.

Think of the Explore feature as a data analyst hiding in the corner of your spreadsheet. When you open it, it immediately scans your selected data and offers suggestions in a side panel. These aren't random guesses, the AI analyzes your headers and data types (numbers, dates, text) to propose relevant charts, calculate key statistics, and even answer questions you type in plain English.

The goal is to bridge the gap between having data and understanding it. Instead of staring at hundreds of rows and wondering where to start, you can use the Explore feature to get instant suggestions and a clear starting point for your analysis.

First Things First: Preparing Your Data for Analysis

An AI is only as smart as the data you give it. Before you can get useful insights, you need to ensure your data is clean, organized, and easy for the AI to understand. Messy data leads to confusing or incorrect suggestions. Here’s a simple checklist to follow.

1. Use Clean, Unambiguous Headers

Your first row should be a dedicated header row, with each column having a unique and descriptive title. The AI uses these headers to understand the context of the data in each column.

• Good: Date, Sales Rep, Region, Revenue, Units Sold

• Bad: Info, Rep Name, Region, Sales ($), Number of Units (Mixed case and special characters can sometimes confuse the AI).

• Also Bad: Merging cells to create a header that spans multiple columns. Keep it simple: one header for one column.

2. Maintain a Consistent Structure

Your data should be a simple, rectangular block of information. Avoid including blank rows or columns in the middle of your dataset, as this can signal to the AI that your data table has ended.

• Delete any empty rows separating your data.

• Ensure there are no completely blank columns between your data columns.

• Don't put summary calculations (like =SUM(D2:D100)) at the bottom of a column you want to analyze, as it skews the data distribution. Place summaries in a separate area of your sheet.

3. Format Your Data Types Correctly

Make sure Google Sheets properly recognizes the type of data in each column. This is crucial for accurate calculations and visualizations.

• Dates: Format cells containing dates as dates (Format > Number > Date). Don't just type them as plain text.

• Numbers & Currency: Format financial data as currency and numerical data as numbers. This allows the AI to perform calculations like sums, averages, and counts correctly.

• Text: Ensure consistent spelling and capitalization for categorical data (e.g., use "USA" every time, not a mix of "USA", "U.S.A.", and "United States").

A Step-by-Step Guide to Using the "Explore" Feature

Once your data is tidy, you’re ready for the fun part. Let's walk through an example using a common dataset: a simple log of social media post performance.

Here’s our sample data:

Step 1: Select Your Data

Click on the top-left cell of your dataset (your first header, Post Date in our example). Then, press Ctrl + A (or Cmd + A on Mac) to automatically select your entire contiguous data range.

Step 2: Open the Explore Panel

Look to the bottom-right corner of your Google Sheet. You'll see a small icon, often a plus sign with sparkles or a star, with the text "Explore" when you hover over it. Click it.

A new panel will slide out on the right side of your screen. This is the Explore panel.

Step 3: Review the AI-Generated Insights

The Explore panel automatically analyzes your data and populates itself with several sections:

• Answers: At the top is a search box where you can ask questions in plain English. We’ll cover this in more detail next.

• Formatting: You might see suggestions for applying alternating row colors to make your table more readable.

• Charts & Analysis: This is the main section. The AI will generate a variety of charts and pivot tables it thinks are relevant. For our social media data, you might see:

  • A bar chart showing the "Sum of Likes by Platform."

  • A line chart illustrating "Reach over time (by Post Date)."

  • A pie chart breaking down the "Count of Post Type."

  • A histogram showing the distribution of Likes.

You can hover over any chart to see more details. To add a chart directly to your spreadsheet, just click the "Insert chart" icon or simply drag and drop it from the panel onto your sheet.

Unlocking Deeper Insights with Natural Language Questions

The automatically generated charts are a great starting point, but the real power of the Explore feature comes from asking your own specific questions in the "Ask about this data" box.

Using our sample social media data, here are some questions you could ask:

• "Total reach by platform" — This will instantly generate a bar chart or table summarizing total reach for Facebook, Instagram, and X.

• "Average number of comments for video posts" — The AI will filter for "Video" in the Post Type column and calculate the average of the Comments column.

• "Which platform had the most shares?" — It will parse this question and return a highlight showing an answer, likely Instagram from our sample data.

• "Post Reach vs Likes as a scatter plot" — You can even specify the type of chart you want to see.

Tips for Asking Good Questions:

• Use your header names: The AI understands your questions best when you refer to the column headers (e.g., "by Platform" or "total Reach").

• Start simple: Ask for one thing at a time. Instead of asking "What was the best-performing platform by likes and comments," ask "Total likes by platform," and then "Total comments by platform."

• Get more specific: As you get more comfortable, you can combine filters. For example: "Total Likes for Facebook in May 2024."

If you don’t get the answer you expect, try rephrasing your question. The AI is impressive but sometimes needs a clearer prompt to understand your intent.

Common Pain Points and Quick Fixes

Sometimes things don't go as planned. Here are a few common issues and how to resolve them.

1. The "Explore" button is greyed out.

This almost always means you haven't selected a range of data. Click anywhere within your data table and try again. Often, just selecting a single cell within your dataset is enough for Google Sheets to figure it out.

2. The chart suggestions seem random or unhelpful.

Go back to the data preparation checklist. This usually happens when the data is poorly structured or formatted. Check for blank rows, ambiguous headers, or inconsistent data types (e.g., numerical values stored as text).

3. The AI can't answer my question.

This can happen if your question is too ambiguous or complex. Try breaking it down into smaller, simpler questions. Instead of "Analyze the performance trends of my campaigns," start with "Total reach by week" to build your analysis piece by piece.

Final Thoughts

Google Sheets has made huge strides in making data analysis accessible to everyone. Using the AI-powered Explore feature, you can quickly move from a static table of numbers to dynamic charts and clear answers, helping you make smarter, data-informed decisions without a steep learning curve.

As you get more comfortable analyzing data, you'll find that your key business metrics aren't just in one spreadsheet, they're spread across a dozen platforms like Google Analytics, Shopify, Facebook Ads, and Salesforce. That's where we've built Graphed to be the next step up. We connect to all of your data sources in one click and allow you to ask natural language questions just like in Sheets, but instead of one chart, we build entire real-time dashboards for you in seconds. It allows your entire team to get the cross-platform insights they need without the manual work of exporting CSVs and stitching them together.