AI Sheets App Overview

AI Sheets

1. What it is

AI Sheets is a spreadsheet app where users create, import, and collaborate on structured data — and an AI assistant answers questions about it, proposes edits for review, fills columns in bulk, and generates formulas from plain-language descriptions. Questions that involve counting, totals, or averages run as exact SQL over every row, not as model estimates.

• Enablement: AI Sheets requires a license. An admin enables it from Admin → Apps → All Apps, then configures AI features and limits from Settings inside the app.
• What it is not: AI Sheets is not a database or a BI tool. It stores flat rows of data per sheet. It does not replace external spreadsheet software — it is for structured data that lives inside your organization, with AI layered on top.

2. Standing it up

1. Go to Admin → Apps → All Apps and enable AI Sheets.
2. Open AI Sheets → Settings (visible only to app admins). Confirm that Enable AI features is on. Review the individual AI toggles — AI edits, AI column fill (enrichment) and AI automation actions are all on by default — and the Enable AI Sheets Agent switch, which controls the Ask AI chat agent.
3. Decide whether to turn on Allow public sharing links (off by default). When it is on, sheet owners can generate a link that anyone with the URL can view, optionally requiring authentication. Who can do what on the same page narrows who may publish one.
4. Set Maximum rows per sheet if the default of 5,000 is not appropriate. The value must be between 100 and 50,000. The row limit applies to each tab, so set Maximum tabs per sheet (default 20, between 2 and 50) in the same section if you want a tighter ceiling on how much data one document can hold.
5. Grant access to the users or groups who should see the app. Users who have access see AI Sheets in their app launcher and can create their own sheets immediately — no further configuration is required.

There is no prerequisite setup beyond enabling the app. Users can create sheets, import data, or pick a template the moment access is granted.

3. How it fits together

Sheets and rows. A sheet is a named grid with a defined column schema and a set of data rows. Each sheet belongs to the user who created it. Sheets support up to 100 columns and a configurable maximum number of rows (default 5,000). Each row’s data is capped at 64 KB.

Tabs. A sheet is a workbook: it can hold several tabs, the way an Excel workbook holds worksheets. A tab is a complete worksheet in its own right — its own columns, rows, formula columns, saved views, comments, automation rules, activity, version history and live sync — and the column and row limits above apply to each tab, not to the document as a whole. Everything that identifies the document belongs to the sheet and covers every tab at once: name, description, tags, star, collaborators and their roles, the public link, the Forms connection, and Trash. Sharing a sheet therefore shares all of its tabs; there are no per-tab permissions. A formula column sees its own tab by default and can read a sibling tab by naming it — sumcolumn(amount, "Q1"), vlookup(id, id, rate, "Rates") — rendering blank if that tab is later deleted. An administrator caps how many tabs one sheet may hold (default 20).

Column types. Every column has a type: Text, Number, Currency, Date, Email, URL, Boolean, Select (dropdown with defined choices), or Formula. Formula columns are computed at read time from an expression and are never directly editable. The formula engine supports arithmetic, comparisons, logic, string functions, date functions, and aggregate functions like column totals and lookups across rows.

Collaborators and permissions. The person who creates a sheet is the owner. Owners can share sheets with other users as Viewer (read-only) or Editor (can edit rows and data). Only the owner can delete the sheet, manage sharing, create automation rules, or save it as a template. Viewers can comment on cells. The collaborator’s default permission is Viewer. Sharing is per sheet: everyone the sheet is shared with sees every row and every column — there are no row- or column-level permissions — so keep data only some people may see (pay, for example) in a sheet shared only with them.

Hide from AI. In Edit Sheet → Columns (from the sheet’s ⋮ menu), any editor can tick Hide from AI on a column. It keeps that column’s values out of what is sent to the AI — Ask AI answers, AI edits and AI column fill — and the AI is told the column is withheld rather than left to guess. It does not stop the AI writing into the column, and it does not hide the column from people, exports or the public link.

Example: Alex creates a “Q3 Hiring Pipeline” sheet with columns for Candidate, Role, Stage (a Select column with choices “Applied”, “Phone Screen”, “Interview”, “Offer”, “Hired”), Salary, and Start Date. Alex shares the sheet with two recruiters as Editors so they can update rows, and with the hiring manager as a Viewer. The hiring manager asks the AI panel: “How many candidates are at the Offer stage?” — the system runs an exact count over all rows and returns the number.

Templates. A sheet can be saved as a template by its owner. Templates appear in the Templates tab alongside built-in system templates (Project Tracker, Budget Tracker, Contact List, Inventory, Event Planning) and pre-populated example sheets (Sales Pipeline and others). Creating a sheet from a template copies the column schema and any existing rows into a new sheet.

Views. Each user can save personal views on a sheet — a named set of filters. A saved view keeps filters only, not a sort order. Views are per-user: only you see the views you save, and they do not affect other collaborators.

Form bridge. When the Forms app is enabled, a user can create a sheet from a form template. The sheet’s columns are derived from the form’s fields. Existing submissions are backfilled as rows, and new submissions are added automatically as they come in.

Real-time collaboration. Multiple users editing the same sheet see each other’s row changes, new rows, deletions, and comments in real time. A presence indicator shows who is currently viewing the sheet.

Tags. Sheets can be tagged with free-text labels. Tags appear as filterable pills on the sheet list, scoped to sheets the user owns or that were shared with them — a tag on someone else’s private sheet is never visible.

Starring. Only the sheet owner can star a sheet. Starred sheets appear in the Starred tab for quick access.

Soft delete and trash. Deleting a sheet moves it to the Trash tab. Sheets in trash can be restored within 30 days. After 30 days, they can no longer be restored. The owner can also permanently delete a sheet from trash at any time.

4. Running it

Creating a sheet

Users can create sheets in four ways from the main sheet list:

1. Blank sheet — enter a name and optionally describe it with AI to auto-generate columns.
2. From a template — pick a system template or a saved user template.
3. Import from CSV or Excel — upload a .csv or .xlsx file. The system infers columns and imports rows.
4. Import from Google Sheets — paste a public Google Sheets URL.

When importing into an existing sheet, the AI can suggest how the file’s headers map to the sheet’s columns.

Working with tabs

The tab strip sits in the status bar along the bottom of the grid. Clicking a tab switches to it in place — the grid, toolbar and comments reload for that tab without a full page load, and the address bar still changes, so deep links, bookmarks and the browser Back button all behave normally. Alt+↓ and Alt+↑ (or Ctrl+Shift+PageDown / Ctrl+Shift+PageUp) move to the next and previous tab. When the strip is longer than the window, the ≡ button at its right lists every tab.

Everything below needs edit access to the sheet. Viewers see the strip and can move between tabs, but not change it.

• Add a tab — click +. The New Sheet dialog opens as **“Add tab to "** with the same doors as a new sheet: Blank, AI, CSV, Google and Form. On the Blank door, **Copy columns from** starts the new tab with an existing tab's column schema (no rows). The Template door is not offered for a tab.
• Rename a tab — double-click its label, or open the tab’s ⌄ menu and choose Rename. Tab names must be unique within the sheet. Edit columns in the same menu opens that tab’s column editor.
• Reorder tabs — drag a tab along the strip, or use Move left / Move right in the tab menu.
• Duplicate a tab — Duplicate in the tab menu copies the tab’s columns and rows into a new tab beside it.
• Delete and restore a tab — Delete in the tab menu removes the tab and its rows. It is a soft delete: for 30 days the tab appears under Deleted tabs in the ≡ list with a Restore button. A sheet always keeps at least one tab, so Delete is disabled on the last one — to remove the whole document, use Move to Trash instead. Deleting the very first tab is allowed; the sheet’s identity moves to the tab that follows it.
• When the cap is reached — adding or restoring a tab past the tenant’s limit is refused with “This sheet already has N tabs, the maximum allowed in this business.” An administrator raises the limit in Settings.

Tabs show up everywhere the document does: the sheet list has a Tabs column and totals rows across every tab; the public read-only link shows the whole strip; mobile shows a read-only row of tab pills; and the Ask AI agent can list a sheet’s tabs and add one (with confirmation).

Asking questions with AI

From the AI panel on a sheet, users type a natural-language question. The AI classifies the question and responds with one of these actions:

• Aggregate (count, sum, average, min, max) — runs exact SQL over all rows and returns the computed number, optionally grouped by a column.
• Filter — shows only rows matching the criteria.
• Sort — reorders rows by a column.
• Chart — renders a bar, line, pie, or doughnut chart from the data.
• Summary — a text analysis for qualitative questions.

Proposing and applying AI edits

When a user asks the AI to change data (“set all overdue tasks to Blocked”, “add 10 rows of sample contacts”), the AI proposes the edit first — showing which rows are affected and a before/after preview. The user confirms before anything is written. Every applied AI edit is logged in the sheet’s Activity Log. AI row edits (updates, additions, deletions and duplicate cleanups) and AI column fills can be undone from the Activity Log — and from the AI panel straight after the change, until you leave the page. A column the AI added or changed is undone from the sheet’s Version History (Undo on that columns change); a sheet it created and an automation rule are reversed by editing or deleting the sheet or rule.

Edit types include updating rows, deleting rows, adding rows, adding a column, and updating a column’s label or options.

Enriching a column with AI

AI Column Fill lets users fill or classify a column’s values using AI. The user describes what value to derive for each row (for example, “categorize the support ticket by urgency” or “extract the city from the address”). The system previews results on a sample of rows, and the user confirms. The fill then runs in the background in batches. It can target all rows or a filtered subset, and can skip rows that already have a value. Enrichment supports both existing columns and new columns created on the fly.

Managing automation rules

Sheet owners can create automation rules from the sheet’s Automation Rules page — open the sheet’s ⋮ (More actions) menu and choose Automation Rules. Each rule has a trigger, optional conditions, and one or more actions. Up to 25 rules per sheet are allowed.

Triggers: Row created, Row updated, Row deleted, Field changed, Rows imported, or Schedule (runs at a recurring interval, minimum every 5 minutes).

A row you type or paste into the grid runs its Row created rules about 45 seconds after its first cell is entered, so the rule sees the whole row; an Update fields action then fills only the cells you left empty. Rows added by Duplicate, by an AI edit or from a form response are checked and updated at once. Either way, a Row created rule’s notifications, emails and webhooks go out about 45 seconds after the row is added.

Actions: Notify collaborators, Notify a user, Send email, Update fields, Create a row, HTTP request, AI fill column (on row triggers only), AI summary digest (on schedule only), or AI anomaly alert (on schedule only).

AI actions need the AI automation actions setting (and Enable AI features) on. While it is off, an AI action cannot be added to a rule or changed, and rules that already hold one keep running with their AI actions skipped — the Automation Rules page marks those actions as turned off by your administrator. Such a rule can still be renamed, turned off, or have the AI action removed. Allow outbound automation actions works the same way for Send email and HTTP request.

Sharing a sheet publicly

When Allow public sharing links is on in Settings, sheet owners can generate a read-only public link from the sheet’s Share panel — if they are among the people allowed under Who can publish a sheet on a public link? (everyone, by default). The owner can optionally require viewers to authenticate (sign in to the organization) before viewing. The public link can be regenerated to invalidate previous links.

Duplicating a sheet

Any user with edit access can duplicate a sheet. Duplication copies the column schema and all data rows — every tab included — into a new sheet owned by the duplicating user. The original owner is notified. Duplication is also the mechanism behind “Use template” — using a template duplicates it and strips the template flag.

Exporting data

Sheets can be exported as CSV or Excel (.xlsx) from the sheet view. An Excel export writes one worksheet per tab; a CSV export covers the tab you are on. A template CSV (headers only, no data rows) can also be downloaded to use as an import template. Importing an .xlsx workbook works the other way round — each of its worksheets becomes a tab, up to the tab limit.

Cell comments

Any collaborator — including viewers — can comment on a specific cell (a row-and-column intersection). Comments support @mentions by email or name. Mentioned users, the sheet owner, and prior participants on the same cell thread are notified — but only people who can open the sheet: a mentioned colleague who is not on the sheet is not notified, so share the sheet with them first. Comments appear in real time for other users who have the sheet open.

Viewing activity and version history

Both pages open from the sheet’s ⋮ (More actions) menu.

Activity Log lists what happened to the sheet: creation, rows added and deleted, imports, exports, sharing, duplications, column changes, AI changes, automation problems, and more. Edits to existing cells are in Version History. AI row edits and finished AI column fills carry an Undo button here for editors — it keeps working even if AI features are later switched off.

Version History lists edits to existing rows and changes to the sheet’s name, description and columns, with who made each. A row edit shows the cells it changed, old value → new value; open a version to see every field it changed, previous value beside new value. A sheet-level change (name, description, columns or a tab’s name) carries an Undo button for editors, which puts back only what that change touched, the way it was before it. Undoing a columns change also rolls back column changes made after it. Undo never touches row values — AI row edits are undone from the Activity Log, and other row edits are corrected in the grid.

Mobile

AI Sheets has a dedicated mobile view at /m/apps/ai-sheets. On phones, users see their sheet list, open a sheet in a simplified table view, star sheets, export to CSV, and read or post cell comments. Editors can change an existing row: tap the pencil on the row to open a form with its fields. Adding and deleting rows, the AI panel and the full spreadsheet grid are desktop-only; phones redirect automatically.

5. Settings

All settings are in AI Sheets → Settings (app admin only).

Setting	Default	What it changes
Enable AI Sheets Agent	On	Whether people can ask about their sheets from the Ask AI panel on any page. It also needs Enable AI features on — the agent is off when either switch is off. Turning only this off keeps the AI built into the grid.
Enable AI features	On	Master switch for all AI capabilities — questions, suggestions, edits, enrichment, AI automations and the Ask AI agent. Turning this off disables every AI feature while leaving the spreadsheet fully functional.
AI edits	On	Whether the AI can propose row and column changes (update, delete, add rows/columns). Requires the master AI switch.
AI column fill (enrichment)	On	Whether AI enrichment (bulk fill a column with AI-derived values) is available. Requires the master AI switch.
AI automation actions	On	Whether automation rules can run AI action types (AI fill column, AI summary digest, AI anomaly alert). Requires the master AI switch. Turning it off also skips those actions in existing rules; the rest of each rule keeps running.
Allow outbound automation actions	On	Whether automation rules can use Send email (to any address, including outside your company) and HTTP request (webhooks). Turning it off stops those actions in existing rules at once and stops new ones being added; notifications, row updates and new rows keep working.
Who can publish a sheet on a public link?	Everyone with access to the app	Narrows who may turn on a sheet’s public link — app admins only, or specific groups. Applies only while Allow public sharing links is on. Admins can always publish.
Who can set up an automation that emails or calls a webhook?	Everyone with access to the app	Narrows who may add Send email or HTTP request actions to a rule — and an existing rule’s emails and webhooks are skipped while its author is outside the list. Applies only while Allow outbound automation actions is on. Admins can always set one up.
Allow public sharing links	Off	Whether sheet owners can generate a public read-only link to a sheet. Turning it off makes every published link stop working at once but does not revoke them — turn it back on and the same links work again.
Maximum rows per sheet	5,000	The maximum number of data rows allowed in a single tab. Accepts values from 100 to 50,000.
Maximum tabs per sheet	20	How many tabs one sheet may hold, the first tab included. Accepts values from 2 to 50. Applies to Add tab, Excel workbook import and the Ask AI add_tab tool. Sheets already above a lowered limit keep their tabs; nothing is deleted.

Governance. App admins also see a Governance page (in the app’s side menu, or Open Governance on the Settings page). It lists every sheet published on a public link and every automation that emails or calls an outside address, with Revoke link and Disable rule buttons. Revoking a link kills that URL for good — the owner would have to publish a new one.

6. More help

• AI Sheets FAQ — specific setup and operating questions.
• Ask AI — the assistant answers questions about AI Sheets from these articles.