Use Microsoft Excel with AI via MCP
Hardly any company runs without Excel – planning, costing and reporting live in workbooks that often only their authors fully understand. Through the companyM365 addon, CompanyGPT accesses these files via MCP, using each user's own Microsoft account.
What is Microsoft Excel?
Microsoft Excel is the spreadsheet application in Microsoft 365. It is used for calculations, budgets, lists, reporting and data preparation, and in many departments it is the tool where business logic is actually modeled – frequently alongside the official systems.
For AI agents, workbooks are therefore a valuable but unstructured data source: numbers sit next to each other without context, and meaning hides in column headers and comments. An agent that can read workbooks and explain relationships saves follow-up questions and shortens the time needed to understand someone else’s file.
Connection at a Glance
- MCP server
- innFactory companyM365 (Microsoft Graph) – operated in your environment
- Transport
- Streamable HTTP
- Authentication
- Entra ID (OAuth 2.0, access on behalf of the user)
- Operating model
- SaaS (Microsoft 365)
- Special feature
- Office add-in from companyM365 – CompanyGPT directly inside Excel
- Community server
- Softeria ms-365-mcp-server (Excel not in the Work IQ catalog)
How to Connect Microsoft Excel to CompanyGPT
Excel is connected through companyM365. The addon runs as an MCP server over streamable HTTP inside your own CompanyGPT environment and accesses workbooks stored in OneDrive and SharePoint through Microsoft Graph. Copilot licenses are not required. companyM365 also ships the native Office add-in that puts CompanyGPT into Excel as a task pane.
Sign-in happens per user via Entra ID, with access taking place on the employee’s behalf. The sharing rules of the underlying file storage therefore continue to apply unchanged. Your administrators register the application once in the tenant and approve the required permissions; in CompanyGPT you define by role and group who may use the integration.
Microsoft’s official Work IQ catalog from Agent 365 does not currently cover Excel. As a community alternative there is the ms-365-mcp-server by Softeria, which can also be operated in your environment if needed – we assess its maturity and operational effort together with you.
Typical Use Cases
How AI agents in CompanyGPT work with Microsoft Excel
Understand inherited workbooks
When taking over a costing model, the agent explains the structure, key figures and dependencies across the sheets before anyone continues to calculate in it.
Comment on reporting
A monthly analysis becomes a short write-up for management that names variances and puts them into context.
Clean up lists
Procurement has an item list checked, duplicates and gaps flagged, and a cleaned version produced as the basis for further work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Microsoft Excel and AI – the most important answers
Does Microsoft offer an official MCP server for Excel?
The official Work IQ catalog from Agent 365 does not currently cover Excel. In CompanyGPT, the connection runs through our companyM365 addon, which opens up workbooks via Microsoft Graph. In addition, the ms-365-mcp-server by Softeria exists as a community solution.
Does the file have to be open for the agent to analyze it?
No. Access goes to the workbook stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. With the Office add-in from companyM365 you can additionally work with CompanyGPT directly inside Excel.
Can the agent change values in a workbook?
The scope of functions can be set per agent. Read access is usually sufficient for analysis; write operations are enabled deliberately where the process calls for them.
Do our employees need a Copilot license?
No. companyM365 works with the existing Microsoft 365 sign-in via Entra ID. A Microsoft 365 Copilot license per user is not required.
Do the numbers stay within the company?
The workbooks remain in your Microsoft 365 tenant and CompanyGPT runs in your own cloud tenant. Content is read only for the request at hand, not transferred permanently to third parties.
Related Integrations
Microsoft 365 & Dynamics
Microsoft Excel and Your AI – GDPR-Compliant with CompanyGPT
CompanyGPT is the enterprise AI assistant in your own cloud tenant: all relevant AI models, your company data and integrations like Microsoft Excel – centrally managed, with roles and permissions. We set up the connection together with you.
Microsoft Excel is a trademark of its respective owner (Microsoft). Its mention describes compatibility and does not imply any partnership or endorsement. Availability and scope of the connection depend on the respective vendor.