Over the past year, artificial intelligence—especially tools like ChatGPT—has been capturing the attention of anyone who’s explored its capabilities. If you’ve had the chance to use it, you’ve likely noticed something quite remarkable. It’s not just about getting answers to your questions or having information served up to you. It’s the *how*—the intelligence behind it, the way it connects the dots, references materials, and offers thoughtful responses in real-time—that’s truly astonishing.
But here’s what fascinates me the most: the sheer speed at which it works. As soon as I hit the button to generate a response (to a 30 minute monologue I have recorded on my phone), ChatGPT begins writing almost instantly, weaving in intelligent insights, connections, and information. It’s as if an invisible engine is rapidly processing data, making sense of my input, checking its veracity as I instructed it to, and delivering polished results—all in a matter of seconds. This speed and efficiency never fail to amaze me, and each time I use it, it brings a sense of awe akin to witnessing a historic moment, like the moon landing.
I’m not being paid to promote ChatGPT, by the way. This isn’t an endorsement for the sake of marketing—this is just something that keeps blowing my mind.
So why bring up ChatGPT? Because it reminds me of an incredible experience I’ve had with something far less glamorous, but equally powerful: Excel. Yes, Excel—the humble spreadsheet software most people use for basic calculations and tracking. What I’m about to describe is the Excel equivalent of the magic you experience when ChatGPT instantly generates answers from vast datasets.
Let me explain.
A Real-Time Excel System: The Hidden Gold Mine
In one of my early consulting projects, I made a game-changing discovery. I illustrate this in the Reg Call Handler stock management challenge for a call handler operation I posted some months ago. Imagine a simple Excel sheet where you can select a clothing brand from a dropdown menu. Once you select the brand, the next dropdown gives you a list of product lines associated with that brand. Choose a product line, and you get options for colours, sizes, and eventually, stock levels. All of this happens through a series of cascading dropdowns, making it easy to check product availability while handling customer calls. Nothing too unusual, right? There are countless YouTube tutorials that show how to create multiple dependent cascading dropdowns in Excel.
But here’s where it gets interesting.
This setup wasn’t just referencing data from a single spreadsheet. It was pulling live data from 20 different, separate spreadsheets located in 20 different locations—*in real-time*. Just as ChatGPT pulls information instantly, my Excel system was doing the same. For example, if a new shipment of gray Adidas tracksuits arrived at a warehouse and was logged into their spreadsheet, within seconds that information would be available to a call handler located halfway across the globe. The dropdown in Excel would immediately update to reflect the new stock, with no manual intervention required.
The instant update, the real-time accuracy, and the fact that this was happening across multiple spreadsheets is truly remarkable.
The Magic of Automation in Excel
What makes this so incredible? It’s not just that the data is being updated in real-time—it’s that nobody expects Excel to be capable of this. Even some well-known Excel experts don’t realize that this level of automation is possible in Excel. The system I built isn’t just working with 20 spreadsheets; it could work with 20,000 spreadsheets, all updating automatically, with no human involvement in between.
Think about the significance of that for a moment. Many business leaders believe they need to spend millions on IT solutions to achieve something like this. They think it requires months of development, expensive software, and a team of consultants. But the truth is, Excel—a tool that’s already sitting on nearly every computer in the world—can pull off this feat with just a few clicks. It’s a hidden treasure, waiting to be discovered and put to use.
The Value of Knowing What Excel Can Do
The real value here isn’t just in the system itself, but in knowing that it’s possible. Businesses that don’t realize Excel can do this are spending enormous amounts of money on external solutions. They attend webinars, hire consultants, and buy into products that promise to do what Excel can already handle.
This knowledge is a goldmine. I’ve worked with several clients who tripled my pay after discovering that I could implement these kinds of solutions using Excel. They were astonished that something so simple—something they’d been using for years—could perform such advanced tasks with just a few tweaks. All it took was enabling a feature, and suddenly, they had a system that rivaled expensive, complex software solutions.
This is the missing treasure in many organizations, and it’s sitting right under their noses. The hidden capability of Excel is just like the immediate, intelligent responses we’ve grown accustomed to with tools like ChatGPT. And the best part? It’s accessible to everyone.
Conclusion
We’re living in an era where digital magic is happening all around us, and sometimes, the most powerful tools are the ones we overlook. Excel, much like ChatGPT, is capable of remarkable things when used to its full potential. The difference is that most people don’t know Excel can be this powerful. But now you do. And knowing this could transform the way you work, the way your business operates, and how you approach challenges.
I’ve seen it firsthand. Four clients tripled my pay because I was able to implement systems like this—systems that required nothing more than ticking a checkbox in Excel. That’s the real magic. And it’s available to anyone willing to unlock it.
What will you do with this treasure?
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