AI Assistant

The AI group on the DVD Addin tab gathers the commands that call a language model to help with spreadsheet work: free-form Q&A, reading and repairing formulas, cleaning up the wording in site records, and reading questions out of an image or PDF. It is aimed at the engineer who inherits somebody else's cost estimate, quantity take-off or schedule file and has to understand and fix it quickly.

Every command in the group calls an external AI service, so it needs an internet connection and an API key entered in Preferences ▸ AI Assistant.

Commands in this group

Command	What it does
AI Chat	Opens an AI chat pane beside the sheet for questions, formula drafting or explanations. It only returns text in the pane — it never edits a cell for you.
Explain formula (Coach)	Sends the selected cell's formula to the AI and shows the explanation in the "AI Formula Coach — Explain" panel. Writes nothing to the sheet.
Fix formula error	Diagnoses a cell returning #N/A, #VALUE!, #REF!, #DIV/0!… and proposes a replacement formula, with an Apply to cell button.
Grammar	Fixes spelling and grammar for the text cells in the selection, overwriting each cell in place.
Solver	Reads an image or PDF of questions through Gemini and writes the answer into the active cell.
DVD Chat	Chat with colleagues (real people, not AI) — see the DVD Chat page.

The four middle commands live under AI Menu, the arrow next to the AI Chat button.

Workflow: reading and repairing a handed-over estimate file

1. Go to DVD Addin → About → About menu → Preferences, section AI Assistant: pick the provider (Gemini, OpenAI, Groq or NVIDIA), pick the model and paste your API key. Without a key none of the AI commands return anything.
2. Nested formula you cannot read: select that cell → AI Menu → Explain formula (Coach) → click Explain. The panel is modeless, so you can click another cell and press Explain again to analyse the next one.
3. Cell showing an error: select one cell → AI Menu → Fix formula error → click Analyse. Read the Explanation box, edit the text in the Suggested formula block if needed, then click Apply to cell.
4. Need a formula that does not exist yet: click AI Chat, describe what you want, then copy the result yourself into the cell — the chat pane does not write to the workbook.
5. A description column typed by several people, wording all over the place: select the column → AI Menu → Grammar. Back up the sheet first: the result overwrites the cells and cannot be undone with Ctrl+Z.
6. Re-check a few sample rows before trusting the AI output across the whole table.

Example

A quantity summary received from a subcontractor, with a few broken cells in the Amount column:

Cell	Current formula	Result	Command used	Outcome
H24	=VLOOKUP(B24;DonGia!A:D;4;0)	#N/A	Fix formula error	=IFERROR(VLOOKUP(TRIM(B24);DonGia!A:D;4;0);0)
K12	=SUMPRODUCT((MaCV=$B5)*(Thang=C$4)*KhoiLuong)	1,240.5	Explain formula (Coach)	Walks through each condition + warns the three named ranges must span the same rows
C5:C180	betong lot mong m1 ,day 100	—	Grammar	Bê tông lót móng M1, dày 100.

For H24 the Explanation box reports that the code in B24 carries a trailing space and therefore never matches column A of the unit-price sheet; clicking Apply to cell brings the Amount column back to the right unit price.

Tips and caveats

• AI Chat returns text only. It does not colour, format or edit any cell for you — copy across whatever you need.
• Grammar and Solver overwrite cell contents and cannot be undone with Ctrl+Z. Back up before running over a large range.
• Grammar sends one API call per cell, so a selection of several hundred cells is slow and burns quota. Only string cells are sent; numbers, formulas and blanks are skipped.
• Solver writes the answer to a cell address on whichever sheet is active when the AI replies — do not switch sheets while waiting, or the answer lands at the same address on another sheet.
• Formulas generated by the AI use whatever argument separator the model prefers — check , versus ; against your regional settings.
• Whatever you send leaves for the AI provider's servers: do not paste sensitive unit prices, contract clauses or customer personal data.
• Changing the provider or model in Preferences takes effect for the next chat session.
• Fix formula error works on one cell only; select several cells or an empty one and there is nothing to analyse. The Suggested formula block only appears when the AI actually produces a replacement — sometimes you get the explanation alone.
• Explain formula (Coach) needs the selected cell to hold a formula (starting with =); a value-only cell reports "the selected cell has no formula". Select a whole range and only the first cell is analysed.
• To explain a formula inside a cell instead of in a dialog, use the dvdAIExplain worksheet function — see the AI functions.

See also

• Formula Coach (Explain + Fix) — deeper guide to the two AI Formula Coach modes.
• DVD Chat — team chat inside Excel; same ribbon group, but not AI.
• Preferences — where the AI provider, model and API key are stored.
• Translate — translate cell contents with Google, Gemini or ChatGPT.