Tasks

How to Use AI to Clean Up Messy Spreadsheet Data

2 min read

Messy data — inconsistent names, mixed date formats, full names in one column — is a perfect AI job.

1. Paste a sample

Copy 10–20 rows into ChatGPT or Claude and describe the mess:

This is customer data. Standardize it:
- Title-case the names
- Split "Full Name" into First and Last
- Convert all dates to YYYY-MM-DD
- Return it as a Markdown table.

2. Get a repeatable recipe

For the whole file, ask for a formula or script instead of doing it by hand:

Give me a Google Sheets formula to split column A (full name)
into first and last name in columns B and C.

3. Verify

Spot-check a few rows — AI can guess wrong on odd names or ambiguous dates. Never paste sensitive customer data into a tool you don’t trust; for that, use a local model.

Open the full interactive version (with copy buttons) ↗

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