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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Excel is still a fixture in finance work, but a 2025 survey finding that 82% of respondents felt emotionally attached to it does not prove that its popularity is surging. The result comes from a Datarails survey of 212 finance professionals in the US and UK, as reported by CFO.com and ITPro. It measures respondents’ reported feelings—not Excel’s share of the software market or a change in usage over time.
What does the 82% Excel attachment figure mean?
In a Datarails survey conducted in October 2025, 82% of respondents reported high or moderate emotional attachment to Excel. CFO.com describes the sample as 212 finance professionals in the US and UK. The result is evidence of strong attachment among those respondents, not a global measure of Excel users or proof that popularity has increased.
The accessible reporting does not establish how participants were recruited, the response rate, whether results were weighted, or the exact wording of the question. Those limits matter: the percentage describes this survey sample, and should not be generalized to all finance professionals.
“Emotional attachment” is also different from preference, frequency of use, or importance to a workflow. The survey reported distinct answers on those topics, and none is equivalent to market share or a count of current users.
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Is Excel still popular—and is it surging?
Excel reached its 40th anniversary in 2025; Microsoft dates its launch to 1985. The anniversary is a milestone, while the survey points to continued significance for the finance professionals it sampled. But the word “surging” implies a rise over time, and the reported attachment result is not a before-and-after comparison. The available survey coverage provides no time series that establishes a surge.
Other Datarails survey responses reported by ITPro help put the attachment result in context:
| Survey response | Reported result | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|
| Preferred Excel to other business software | 40% | Preference among surveyed finance professionals, not market share. |
| Named Excel as their go-to or favorite platform | 57% | A reported favorite-platform response, not an independent usage measure. |
| Expected Excel to be equally or more important over the following decade | 84% | Respondents’ expectation, not a verified forecast of future use. |
These are separate survey measures, not interchangeable proof of adoption. The 84% figure records what respondents expected in 2025; it does not establish what actually happened afterward.
Why do finance teams remain attached to Excel?
The survey supports a practical interpretation: Excel remains familiar and important to many finance respondents even though they report workflow pain points. Its flexible grid can support different tasks, and familiarity can make a tool hard to displace from established processes. The survey results, however, do not establish why any individual respondent feels attached or which features caused that attachment.
Excel’s uses also reach beyond conventional accounting and finance. In a 2025 anniversary feature, Microsoft described personal tracking, spreadsheet art, games, tutorials, books and competitive spreadsheet events. Cuong Pham, who manages a global community of Excel users, told Microsoft that people use it “far beyond the typical finance or accounting scenarios,” including to make music or build simulation games. These examples illustrate Microsoft’s account of Excel’s user culture; they are not independent adoption statistics.
What frustrations coexist with Excel’s staying power?
Respondents reported operational problems alongside their attachment. In figures reported by ITPro from the Datarails survey, data consolidation was the biggest frustration for 28%, data entry and updates for 23%, and version control for 22%.
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The results suggest a useful distinction: a team can value a familiar, flexible spreadsheet and still struggle with the work around it. When comparing tools or deciding where to improve a process, assess the needs that these complaints point toward rather than treating attachment as proof that Excel is the best fit for every task:
- How easily can information from multiple sources be consolidated?
- How will teams coordinate edits and maintain version control?
- Can users trace changes and review calculations for errors?
- Does the workflow integrate with the finance systems the organization already uses?
- What licensing and implementation costs apply?
These are evaluation questions, not conclusions that the survey establishes about any particular alternative.
Are younger finance professionals moving away from Excel?
The available reporting does not show that younger finance professionals are broadly abandoning Excel. It includes age-related findings, but the published descriptions differ: ITPro gives an age band of 22–32 for some results, while CFO.com reports 22–35. Without the full questionnaire and survey methodology, those age-band figures should not be treated as a clean comparison between generations. The overall 82% attachment finding does not, by itself, answer whether one age group is moving toward or away from Excel.
How is AI changing Excel for finance?
Microsoft’s June 25, 2026 product-team post describes Copilot in Excel capabilities aimed at finance workflows. The direction is to bring connected data, repeatable tasks and reviewability into Excel, rather than treating AI as a substitute for financial checks.
Announced workflow and review features
- Reusable skills for tasks such as discounted cash flow (DCF) modeling, month-end close and variance analysis.
- Financial data connectors for providers including LSEG, Moody’s, CB Insights, Daloopa, FactSet, Morningstar, PitchBook and S&P Global.
- Change traceability showing intended and completed changes.
These details come from Microsoft’s product announcement, not independent evidence that the features improve productivity or are widely adopted. Access and licensing can vary: Microsoft says third-party connectors may require separate licensing, and its June 2026 post said FactSet was in preview with general availability expected in July. Check current Microsoft and provider documentation for availability and terms.
Microsoft Excel Product Group vice president Brian Jones wrote that AI in finance must show its work, use trusted data and trace every calculation. That is Microsoft’s product-team perspective, and a useful description of the reviewability challenge—not an independent standard or proof that every AI-generated result is correct. Users still need to verify inputs, formulas and outputs.
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The 2025 Datarails findings offer a snapshot of reported attitudes and frustrations among a specific group of finance professionals. They support the view that Excel remains embedded in many respondents’ work, while also showing that attachment can coexist with consolidation, data-entry and version-control problems.
Quick Recap
- They can tell you: what surveyed finance professionals reported about attachment, preference, perceived importance and frustrations.
- They cannot establish: Excel’s current global user count, its market share, a universal trend among finance teams, or a rise in popularity over time.
- They cannot verify: whether respondents’ expectations for Excel’s future importance will prove accurate or whether announced AI features deliver measurable gains in practice.
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