Ask questions about your data in plain English

The problem

You've got data sitting in spreadsheets, but getting answers means either learning Excel formulas, waiting for someone technical, or paying for a consultant. You just want to ask "how many people did we help last quarter?" or "show me the trend by region" and get an answer.

The solution

You'll upload your spreadsheet to ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini and ask questions in plain English. These tools can read your data, write the analysis code for you, and show you the results as charts or tables. You don't need to understand the code. Just ask what you want to know and check if the answer makes sense.

What you get

Answers to your questions, often with charts and tables you can copy into reports. You can ask follow-up questions to dig deeper. Some tools let you download the charts or the underlying data. The whole conversation becomes a record of your analysis.

Before you start

• Your data in a spreadsheet (CSV or Excel)
• A paid account with ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, or Gemini Advanced. Free tiers have size limits and will have the option to train on your data, which isn't ideal for charity information
• A rough idea of what questions you want to answer
• Data that doesn't contain sensitive personal information, or that you've anonymised first

When to use this

• You've got a specific question about your data and want a quick answer
• You need to explore data before deciding what analysis to do properly
• You're preparing for a board meeting and need some quick charts
• The person who usually does this is on leave and you need something now

When not to use this

• You need the same analysis every month. Better to build a proper dashboard
• The data is highly sensitive and you can't upload it to a third party
• You need guaranteed accuracy for statutory reporting. Always double-check AI outputs
• Your spreadsheet is large (over 10MB or tens of thousands of rows). These tools struggle with big files, and the answers get less reliable. There are other approaches for bigger datasets

Steps

1. 1

   Check what you can upload

   Before uploading anything, think about what's in the data. If it contains names, addresses, or other personal details, either anonymise it first (remove or replace identifying columns) or check with your data protection lead. For aggregate data or data that's already anonymised, you're usually fine.

2. 2

   Clean up your spreadsheet a bit

   You don't need it perfect, but help the AI help you. Make sure the first row has clear column headers (not "Column A"). Remove any completely empty rows or columns. If you've got multiple sheets, either combine them or upload just the one you need.

3. 3

   Upload and describe your data

   Upload your file to ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. Then tell it what the data is: "This is our beneficiary data for 2024. Each row is one person we helped. The columns are date, service type, age group, and region." The more context you give, the better the answers.

4. 4

   Ask your first question

   Start simple. "How many rows are in this data?" or "What are the unique values in the service type column?" This helps you check the AI has understood your data correctly before asking anything complex.

5. 5

   Ask what you actually want to know

   Now ask your real questions. "Show me the number of beneficiaries by month as a line chart." "What's the breakdown by age group and region?" "Are there any patterns I should know about?" If the answer isn't quite right, just say so and ask it to try again.

6. 6

   Export what you need

   Copy charts into your reports, download the data behind them, or just screenshot the conversation. If you asked it to create a summary, you can copy that text directly. Some tools let you download the charts as images.

7. 7

   Sanity check the answers

   AI tools are good but not perfect. Before putting numbers in a board report, do a quick sense check. Does the total match what you'd expect? Pick a few specific cases and verify them manually. This takes a minute and saves embarrassment.

Tools

Resources

Part of this pathway