Announcing o11's backing from Y Combinator.
Generate Complex Excel Formulas with AI: Move Beyond Googling
Excel formulas are essentially a low-level programming language. If you don’t speak it fluently, you are constantly interrupted by the friction of syntax—Googling “how to do a multi-criteria lookup” or trying to remember if the MATCH type should be 0 or 1.
In 2026, the most productive analysts treat Excel formulas as something they describe, not something they write. o11 acts as your dedicated syntax expert, allowing you to focus on the business logic while it handles the parentheses.
The End of the “Syntax Bottleneck”
We’ve all been there: you know exactly what you want to calculate, but you spend 15 minutes fighting with nested IF statements or a complex XLOOKUP.
With o11, you simply state your intent in plain English:
- The Request: “Look up the Sales Value in the ‘Master_Data’ sheet where the Region matches ‘EMEA’ and the Product Category is ‘Software’. If no match is found, return ‘Check Data’.”
- The Hero: o11 writes the exact formula into the cell for you:
=IFERROR(INDEX(Master_Data!C:C, MATCH(1, (Master_Data!A:A="EMEA")*(Master_Data!B:B="Software"), 0)), "Check Data")
No syntax errors. No missing commas. No “Value Not Available” errors because you forgot a range anchor ($).
Handling The Complex & The Obscure
o11 isn’t just for simple math. It understands the deep, obscure corners of Excel that take years to master.
Advanced Financial Logic
- Prompt: “Calculate the IRR for this series of cash flows in range B2:B20, but assume a reinvestment rate of 5%.”
- Result: o11 writes the
=MIRR()function with the correct arguments.
Array Formulas (Dynamic Arrays)
- Prompt: “Filter the customer list to show only those who spent more than $1,000 in Q4, and sort the list alphabetically by last name.”
- Result: o11 leverages modern Excel functions like
=SORT(FILTER(...)).
Regex and Text Parsing
- Prompt: “Extract the domain name from the email addresses in Column A (e.g., john@o11.ai -> o11.ai).”
- Result: o11 generates the necessary string manipulation formula (
=TEXTAFTER(A1, "@")).
Why o11 is Better than “Formula Generators”
There are dozens of free “Formula Bot” websites. Why use o11?
- Context Awareness: Those websites don’t see your data. o11 knows your sheet names, your column headers, and your data types. You don’t have to explain that “Sales” is in Column C—it already knows.
- No Context Switching: You don’t have to copy-paste formulas between a browser and your workbook. o11 is native; it writes the code directly into the grid.
- Cross-App Sync: Once your formula generates the right data, o11 can help you move that insight into a PowerPoint slide or a Word report in one motion.
Verdict
In 2026, being an “Excel Expert” isn’t about memorizing syntax; it’s about being able to describe complex logic clearly. o11 empowers every user to speak the language of Excel fluently, turning hours of Googling into seconds of prompt-to-cell generation.
