From a Graph Book to Excel—and Now Excel with AI

 Early this morning, while I was still lying in bed, a thought about AI and Excel suddenly came to me.

It took me back several decades.

When I was working with Mr. Mok, he was preparing to retire and handing over the Personnel Department to me. One of the things I remember clearly was how payroll was handled.

There was no sophisticated payroll system.

The calculations were done manually with a calculator, and the figures were written into a large graph book.

I remember looking at the process and thinking: There must be a better way to do this.

So I designed a spreadsheet using Excel.

For me, it was a small but important improvement. Instead of repeatedly calculating and writing everything by hand, the spreadsheet could organize the information and do the calculations much more efficiently.

I enjoyed working with it.

Looking back now, I realize that what interested me was not really Excel itself. I enjoyed finding a better way of doing something that people had been doing manually for years.

And today, AI has taken that idea another step forward.

Excel meets AI

Excel is still very useful for organizing numbers, calculating figures and keeping structured records. But AI can now work alongside spreadsheets and help us understand and manipulate the information in more natural ways.

Instead of remembering complicated formulas, we can increasingly describe what we want in ordinary language.

For example:

“Show me which employees had the biggest changes in salary.”

“Calculate the total payroll for each department.”

“Find anything unusual in this month's figures.”

“Create a summary of this spreadsheet.”

“What would happen if salaries increased by 3%?”

AI can help turn those requests into analysis, formulas, summaries or other useful results.

That is quite a change from my old graph book.

The interesting part

But I don't think AI makes Excel unnecessary.

I see it differently.

Excel is the working table. AI is becoming the assistant sitting beside you.

The spreadsheet holds the information and performs the structured calculations. AI helps you ask questions, find patterns, create formulas, explain results and sometimes automate parts of the work.

That combination could make many ordinary office tasks much more efficient.

And there is something rather amusing about this for me.

Decades ago, I was looking at a large graph book and thinking, “There must be a better way.”

Today, at 80, I am looking at AI and thinking exactly the same thing.

The technology has changed dramatically.

But perhaps the basic human instinct has not changed at all.

Find a better way to do the work.

That is one reason I enjoy learning about AI today.

I have used technology for many years, from calculators to spreadsheets and now to AI. Each generation makes it easier to do things that once required much more time and effort.

I wonder what Mr. Mok would think if he could see his old Personnel Department today.

The calculator is gone.

The big graph book is gone.

The Excel spreadsheet is still around.

And now there is an AI assistant sitting beside it.

Not bad progress for one working lifetime.

And for this 80+ learner, the journey continues.

Want to explore AI + Excel?

• Try Microsoft Copilot with Excel
• Learn Excel skills with an online training course

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AI Disruption in China — A Lesson for All of Us

I stumbled upon an interesting TikTok video after returning home from Saturday Mass. The speaker is a Singaporean who had just returned from about three weeks in China.

During his trip, he met business people, visited companies and saw firsthand how quickly AI is changing the business environment.

What he brought back was not simply a story about technology.

It was a story about disruption — and opportunity.

According to his observations, AI is already affecting many parts of life and work in China. The impact reaches from clerical and office jobs to industrial and manufacturing work. Some jobs have been displaced, and for the people affected, this can be painful and unsettling.

But what struck me most was how people are responding.

Rather than pretending the disruption isn't happening, many Chinese people are facing it directly. They know AI is part of the future, so there is a strong push to learn and understand it.

In other words:

If AI is coming, learn how to use it.

I found that attitude particularly interesting.

The Singaporean speaker believes that what he saw in China could eventually happen more widely in Singapore, Malaysia and other ASEAN countries. His purpose in sharing his experience was to let people in the region understand both sides of the story — the disruption that AI can cause and the opportunities it can create.

I think that is an important message for all of us.

We often talk about AI as something exciting: ChatGPT, image generation, automation, robots and new businesses.

But there is another side.

AI can also change the way people earn a living.

Some tasks will disappear. Some jobs will change. New jobs and new opportunities will emerge. And people who learn to work with AI may find themselves in a better position than those who simply ignore it.

This doesn't mean everyone has to become a technology expert.

Far from it.

At 80+, I'm certainly not trying to become an AI engineer. I'm simply learning how AI can help me write, research, organize my thoughts and continue doing things that interest me.

That is why I started AI123.ca.

My approach is quite simple:

Exploring → Learning → Documenting.

Perhaps that is also the lesson we can take from what is happening in China.

We may not be able to stop technological change. We may not even know exactly where AI will take us.

But we can prepare ourselves.

Learn a little.

Experiment a little.

Ask questions.

And keep an open mind.

The Chinese experience described by this Singaporean speaker may be a warning about the disruption ahead. But I also see something positive in it.

When disruption arrives, learning can become a form of preparation.

Whether you live in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada or somewhere else, that is a lesson worth thinking about.

At 80, I don't expect to outrun AI.

But I can keep learning.

And perhaps that is the best way to move forward.

This reflection is based on a TikTok video by a Singaporean speaker who had recently returned from a three-week visit to China, where he met business people and companies and observed the impact of AI. The views about China's experience and its possible relevance to Singapore, Malaysia and ASEAN are his perspective, followed by my own reflections.

AI123.ca — Exploring → Learning → Documenting

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