Gemini In Google Sheets Will Write Python Code To Generate Insights, Charts

The Gemini side panel in Google Sheets is being updated to let you more easily visualize and analyze data through insights and charts. It goes beyond summarizing spreadsheets or creating tables.

An “Analyze for insights” shortcut in the side panel and other prompts can return “contextual trends, patterns, and correlations between different variables in your data.” Behind-the-scenes, complex prompts are being turned into Python code, with simpler questions still handled by formulas.

This update reflects Gemini in Sheets’ enhanced intelligence as it now yields valuable outputs by transforming your requests into Python code, executing on them and then analyzing the results to perform multi-layered analysis.

Additionally, Gemini can be asked to generate charts based on data in a Sheet:

Charts are generated as static images and can be easily inserted into your sheet.
Charts are not linked to your sheet data, so they won’t update automatically if your data changes.
Once inserted, charts cannot be modified. If you need to make changes, you’ll need to generate a new chart.

Google recommends that “your data is in a consistent format, with clear headers and no missing values” and that files be below 1 million cells for the best results, while prompts should be as specific as possible.

Business use cases include:

A marketing manager analyzing campaign performance can ask “Provide some insights on my top 3 performing channels by conversion rate” and can receive a detailed breakdown with supporting visualizations.
A small business owner managing cash flow can ask “Predict my net income for the next quarter based on historical data” to proactively identify potential shortfalls.
A financial analyst investigating inventory trends can ask “Identify any anomalies in inventory levels for Product X” to uncover potential supply chain issues or unusual demand patterns.

Rolling out over the coming weeks, this is available for: