OpenAI’s natural language processing and powerful AI models make it easy to generate new content, edit existing content, and answer questions with simple requests. The OpenAI API, released in June 2020, empowers developers to build their own applications that leverage OpenAI’s language models – like GPT-3 – and bring generative AI capabilities to everyone. OpenAI has also developed its own tools that leverage their models, some of which have created big waves.

DALL·E, released in January 2021, is a deep learning model that is capable of generating images from text descriptions. It uses a variant of the GPT-3 architecture and is trained on a dataset of text and images from the internet. With DALL-E, users can input a text prompt describing an image they want to generate, and the model will output a generated image that matches the description.

More recently, ChatGPT – a publicly-available conversational method of interacting with the GPT-3 model – took the internet by storm after its public release in November 2022. It’s safe to say that ChatGPT was better than many expected it might be, generating headlines like The New York Post’s “‘Scary’ AI ChatGPT could eliminate Google within 2 years” and The New York Times’ “The Brilliance and Weirdness of ChatGPT”, among many others.

ChatGPT is so good at what it does that, according to Forbes, a growing number of school districts, including New York and Los Angeles, have banned ChatGPT over concerns of cheating. To address this, OpenAI is developing a capability to help spot ChatGPT-generated text. 

Academic concerns aside, the applications and benefits of this technology are vast. The AI models behind tools like DALL-E and ChatGPT can be used as chatbots, virtual assistants, content and code generators, and even strategists for Go, the world’s oldest and most complex games.

While people are still trying to wrap their heads around the full potential economic and social impact of AI in the workplace, it’s clear that this groundbreaking technology is here to stay. As Harvard Business Review notes, “businesses that understand the significance of this change — and act on it first — will be at a considerable advantage.”  Microsoft is one of the businesses which is betting big on the technology. With their investment of $10 Billion into OpenAI, company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, promises that businesses will be able to utilize tools like ChatGPT in their workplace communications such as emails, presentations, and spreadsheets.

There are many great applications of OpenAI in spreadsheet software that can aid with allowing advanced analysis and data manipulation, such as natural language processing and image recognition. Here are a few ways that generative AI can increase productivity, accuracy, and efficiency of spreadsheet-based workflows:

1. Automation of data entry and validation tasks: OpenAI models can be used to automatically fill in cells in a spreadsheet based on the contents of other cells, or to validate data to ensure that it is accurate and consistent.
   
   
2. Generating reports and insights: OpenAI models can be used to analyze data in a spreadsheet and generate insights or reports based on that data.
   
   
3. Providing natural language support: OpenAI models can be used to understand and respond to natural language queries about the data in a spreadsheet, making it easier for users to find the information they need.
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4. Creating predictive models: OpenAI models can be used to build predictive models based on the data in a spreadsheet, which can be used to forecast future trends or identify potential issues.

We also recognize the potential that the technology can offer to over 200,000 of our users. That’s why we’ve built a native OpenAI integration that lets users leverage OpenAI functionality by writing simple formulas directly in their Spreadsheet.com workbooks. 

Spreadsheet.com’s OpenAI integration can be accessed with the OPENAI_COMPLETE integration function. Like all other functions, you can use it in any spreadsheet cell or with the Column Formula data type.

There are numerous ways you can use OpenAI Completions in your Spreadsheet.com worksheets. We built out a new OpenAI category in our Template Gallery to help get you started:

As with any good content calendar template, this Content Calendar with OpenAI template allows you to plan out your content roadmap. You can assign projects to writers, store content assets, collaborate with your team on ideation, and use multiple views to visualize and manage your entire content production workflow. 

If you look at Column B, you’ll notice that this spreadsheet leverages OpenAI integration to generate short article descriptions based on the title. This simple formula allows you to kickstart your ideation process in moments.

With this Staffing Plan with OpenAI template, you can easily create your entire staffing plan. List all of your open positions, match them with available employees, and track staffing status using column formulas and related row rollups.

To help you automate some of your busy work, use a formula to leverage OpenAI technology directly in your spreadsheet to generate short job descriptions. This formula is easily customizable, so play around with it to get the descriptions to the desired length and tone.

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This College Application with OpenAI template is designed to help collect data on each potential school and enable making school comparisons with ease.

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This workbook serves as a reminder of important application deadlines and keeps track of crucial aspects of the entire application process, such as essay submissions, tests, reference gathering, and interviews for each school. Additionally, the template leverages the power of Spreadsheet.com's OpenAI integration, enabling prospective students to automatically pull in information about each school.

Check out all OpenAI Spreadsheet.com templates and discover new ways to enhance your worksheets.