Microsoft is Working on AI Powered Scanning That Will Allow Excel to Read Data From Photos

Microsoft is testing an artificially intelligent feature that would allow users to add data to Microsoft Excel spreadsheets using their phone's camera or a photograph. the company is using visual data and mixing Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the Office 365 productivity suite that includes Excel, Word and Powerpoint document editing tools.

Microsoft says, "When it first imports your data, it will give you a chance to correct any issues it discovered during the conversion process. Tap Ignore to move on to the next issue, or Edit to correct the issue."

Basically, you open Excel on your phone or tablet and tap the 'Insert data from picture' button to get started. Excel's powerful AI engine will process the image that it sees and convert it to a table. Users will have the option to edit or correct any data that may have been incorrectly captured.

It is expected that this feature, when it rolls out for consumers, will be cross-platform and not restricted to any particular operating system.