Microsoft Excel

How to Create Sample Data in Excel Using Free Copilot Chat

Chris Menard

01 Oct 2025 — 3 min read

Need fictitious customer data, order records, or test datasets for training, presentations, or projects? You can generate all of it using free Copilot Chat — no paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license required.

In this guide, I walk through how to use Copilot Chat to create realistic sample data, structure it into Excel tables, and add related datasets — all in a single workbook.

YouTube Video

Creating a Customer List

Open Copilot Chat (the free version works fine — compatible with GPT-4 and GPT-5) and prompt it to generate a customer dataset. Specify the fields you need — names, cities, states, emails, customer dates, or any other columns relevant to your use case.

Copilot generates the data and outputs it as a properly formatted Excel file. When you download and open it, the data arrives as structured Excel tables with appropriate column headers and formatting.

Where this technique really shines is in adding related data. After generating your customer list, ask Copilot to create an orders table that references the same customer IDs. Copilot keeps the data consistent across tables and can even name them appropriately — a "Customers" table and an "Orders" table in the same workbook.

This is useful for building Excel function demos, PivotTable examples, or XLOOKUP practice exercises.

Tips for Better Results

Be specific about fields — list exactly which columns you want (name, email, city, state, date, etc.)
Specify the number of rows — "Generate 50 customer records" gives you a meaningful dataset
Request related tables — "Add an orders table with 200 records referencing the customer IDs."
Refine with follow-ups — "Add a product category column to the orders table."

Beyond Excel

This approach works for other applications too. You can use Copilot Chat to generate sample data for PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, or any scenario where you need realistic but fictitious information quickly.

Want to learn more? Visit courses.chrismenardtraining.com for online training courses.

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