Here is the news article, written in the style of a senior financial correspondent.

---

Excel: Workers cling to the software despite shift to AI

By a Senior Financial Correspondent BBC Business (Finance) 9 January 2026

In the fast-paced world of enterprise technology, where artificial intelligence and cloud-native platforms dominate boardroom discussions, a 40-year-old piece of software remains stubbornly at the center of global business operations: Microsoft Excel. Once the symbol of modern office work—so much so that 1990s computer games featured a "boss key" to instantly display a spreadsheet—it is now viewed by many tech leaders as a significant bottleneck, hampering the very digital transformation initiatives designed to propel companies forward.

Despite this view from the top, Excel's ubiquity is undeniable. Research from Acuity Training reveals that two-thirds of office workers use the application at least once every hour. This deep entrenchment creates a fundamental tension between the individual user's need for a flexible, familiar tool and the organization's strategic imperative for secure, centralized, and AI-ready data. As businesses invest billions in advanced analytics, they are finding that their most critical data often remains locked away in a grid of disconnected, error-prone spreadsheets.

The Enduring Appeal of the Spreadsheet

Excel's persistence is no accident. It is a testament to its powerful simplicity and the deep-seated habits formed over decades of use.

"Excel is just a really good tool," says Tom Wilkie, chief technology officer of data visualization firm Grafana. "If you want to look at a small dataset, try an idea, or make a quick chart for a presentation, there's nothing better for quick and easy analysis."

This utility is reinforced from the earliest stages of professional training. Along with Word and PowerPoint, Excel forms the foundational trinity of office software taught in schools and universities, ensuring a steady stream of graduates enter the workforce with the spreadsheet as their default analytical instrument.

The Hidden Risks in Plain Sight

While indispensable for individual tasks, Excel's widespread use for critical business processes poses substantial risks that are often overlooked until disaster strikes. Professor Mark Whitehorn, an emeritus professor of analytics at Dundee University, argues that the core problem lies in a failure to distinguish between data analysis and industrial-strength data processing.

"There are all these small departments where data comes in, goes into a spreadsheet, is run through macros, and it spits out the other end," Whitehorn explains. This ad-hoc system creates a fragile and opaque operational backbone.

The key dangers for organizations include:

• Fragile Automation: Business-critical processes often rely on macros—short, automated scripts within Excel. These are frequently poorly documented and understood only by their creator. "The guy who wrote the macros has gone," Whitehorn notes, "and the people in the department don't know how to run them," leaving operations vulnerable.

• Decentralized Data: When data lives in countless individual spreadsheets across an organization, it becomes impossible to maintain a single source of truth. This creates data silos, making it difficult to secure information, move it efficiently, or aggregate it for high-level analysis.

• A Blocker to AI: Modern artificial intelligence and machine learning systems depend on vast quantities of clean, structured, and centrally accessible data. Fragmented spreadsheet data is the antithesis of this. It is often inconsistent and requires significant manual effort to extract and prepare, fundamentally hindering an organization's ability to fuel its AI ambitions.

High-Profile Failures Underscore the Dangers

The theoretical risks of spreadsheet dependency have repeatedly materialized into high-profile operational failures, costing organizations money, time, and reputation.

• Health New Zealand's Financials: Last year, it was revealed that the country's national health authority used an Excel spreadsheet as its "primary data file" for managing financial performance. This led to significant difficulties in data consolidation, widespread discrepancies and errors, and an inability to gain a real-time overview of its financial health.

• UK Medical Recruitment Chaos: In 2023, the recruitment process for anesthetists in the UK was thrown into disarray by what was described as "spreadsheet confusion," causing immense stress and uncertainty for medical professionals.

• The Afghan Data Scandal: A major data breach involving Afghan nationals resulted from the improper sharing of an Excel spreadsheet, highlighting the inherent security flaws of using the application for sensitive information.

The Corporate Push for Centralization

Recognizing these risks, some organizations are taking firm measures to wean their teams off Excel for core functions. Moutie Wali, director of digital transformation and planning at Canadian telecoms giant Telus, has been leading such a charge. His team drove a project to move hundreds of staff from Excel onto a custom-built planning system to improve data integration, automation, and AI capabilities.

The cultural resistance was immediate. "People wanted to keep their existing Excel setups and simply download information from the new system," Wali explains. This would have defeated the purpose of centralization. His response was unequivocal: "I said absolutely not. You have to force it by not allowing the spreadsheet to coexist with your [new] applications."

Beyond the Enterprise: A Small Business Perspective

The challenge is not unique to large corporations. Kate Corden, an expert Excel user from her corporate career, now runs Hackney Bike Fit, a specialized bike fitting business. She initially managed her two key data streams—customer biometrics and bicycle specifications—in Excel.

"It's too easy to lose data. It's easy for data to be altered," Corden says of her experience. To support her business's growth and ensure data integrity, she migrated to LinkSpace, a dedicated case management tool. "It's just having a complete data management system where you've got everything, instead of having multiple excels, which is going to really help me as I grow."

The Path Forward: Redefining Excel's Role

Microsoft, for its part, defends Excel's continued relevance. A spokesperson stated, "Over four decades, Excel has evolved from a basic spreadsheet into a versatile platform... It is more widely used today than ever before, with monthly usage growing consistently over the past six years, and remains the default tool for data analysis, modelling, and reporting across industries."

The solution for most organizations will not be to ban Excel, an unrealistic and counter-productive goal. Instead, the path forward requires a strategic redefinition of its role. Excel remains an unparalleled tool for personal productivity, quick ideation, and small-scale, ad-hoc analysis.

However, for systemic, repeatable, and mission-critical processes, businesses must enforce the use of centralized, secure, and auditable platforms. The transition is less a technical challenge than a cultural one, requiring strong leadership and a clear vision, as demonstrated by Telus. As the push for AI-driven efficiency and insight intensifies, confronting the organization's dependency on the humble spreadsheet is no longer just an IT project—it is a strategic imperative.