Yesterday our participants learned how to structure raw information; today we level‑led up — moving from tidy data to intelligent insights and stunning stories. Here’s a walkthrough of the second day of our AI in Data Analysis – Google Sheets with AI & Data Visualization training.
Setting the Stage
Data alone is inert. When paired with machine‑learning features and thoughtful visualization, it speaks. Throughout the day we:
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Automated repetitive cleaning inside Google Sheets.
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Let AI suggest patterns and even build formulas for us.
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Told visual stories with Flourish AI’s generative charts.
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Drove board‑room‑ready dashboards in Power BI, powered by its built‑in Copilot.
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Ended with focused mentoring sprints to convert fresh knowledge into personal projects.
Below is a session‑by‑session snapshot, key takeaways, and resources you can revisit.
Session 1 (9 AM – 10 : 30 AM)
AI in Google Sheets – Basics & Automation
| Highlight | Why it matters | Quick replay |
|---|---|---|
| Smart Fill & Smart Cleanup | One‑click pattern recognition fills thousands of rows or fixes messy capitalisation faster than REGEX. | Data ▶ Smart Fill |
| Explore panel | Natural‑language queries (“total sales by month”) produce on‑the‑fly pivot tables & charts. | Hit <kbd>Shift</kbd>+<kbd>Alt</kbd>+<kbd>X</kbd> |
| =GPT() & =FORECAST() pair‑up | Used OpenAI‑powered add‑on to craft column summaries; then Google’s built‑in FORECAST.LINEAR predicted next‑quarter demand. | See add‑on link below |
Hands‑on: Attendees cleaned a 5 000‑row CSV of ecommerce orders in under eight minutes, then generated a 90‑day sales forecast with a single formula.
☕ Break
Caffeine ☕ + corridor chats → mini‑lightning talks on everyone’s favourite Sheets addons.
Session 2 (11 AM – 12 : 30 PM)
AI‑Powered Data Visualization with Flourish AI
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Prompt‑to‑Chart: We typed “animated line chart of monthly revenue with year‑over‑year comparison” and Flourish produced an editable template in seconds.
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Story mode: Participants embedded hover‑to‑reveal annotations and scrollytelling steps.
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Connected Data: Used the Flourish‑Google Sheets live link so dashboards auto‑refresh when the sheet updates.
Hands‑on: Each group transformed its cleaned ecommerce data into an interactive story, then exported it as an iframe ready for the college website.
🍽 Lunch Break
Networking, curry, and a few impromptu demos of AI image‑generation for slide thumbnails.
Session 3 (2 : 30 PM – 4 PM)
Advanced Data Reporting with Power BI
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Copilot in Power BI quickly built visuals from plain English (“show top‑10 products by profit margin, use a waterfall”).
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Quick Measure Suggestions produced DAX calculations without writing code.
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Dataflows + Scheduled Refresh pulled the same Google Sheet every two hours, ensuring reports stay evergreen.
Hands‑on: Teams replicated their Flourish stories in Power BI, comparing the pros (enterprise governance, row‑level security) and cons (steeper learning curve) of each tool.
☕ Tea Break
Masala chai and live Q&A on licensing costs and data privacy.
Session 4 (5 PM – 6 : 30 PM)
Practice & Personal Mentoring
We split into “clinic” tables:
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Spreadsheet Ninjas: deep‑dived into ARRAYFORMULA & GPT‑connected sentiment analysis.
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Storytellers: refined Flourish scrollytelling; added custom CSS.
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Dashboard Gurus: optimized Power BI performance with star‑schema redesigns.
Every participant left with:
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A personal mini‑project plan (due next week).
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Links to template files and cheat‑sheets.
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An invite to our private Discord for post‑workshop support.
Resources & Next Steps
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| Google Sheets AI Formula Cheatsheet | (shared in workshop drive) |
| Flourish AI Starter Templates | flourish.studio/templates |
| Power BI Copilot Preview Signup | aka.ms/PowerBICopilotPreview |
| Recording & Slides | (emailed to participants) |
Tomorrow we pivot to predictive modelling pipelines and responsible AI — get ready to deploy your first end‑to‑end workflow!
