In an April 2019 post, I highlighted a surprise announcement by Microsoft and IBM: a partnership that would enable companies to create and distribute Excel spreadsheets using blockchain. “For years, industry analysts and consultants have urged companies to stop using Excel spreadsheets to run their supply chain processes,” said Edward Chang from Microsoft, “but the reality is that people love Excel because it is easy to use, easy to configure, and has powerful macro-building capabilities. Now, in partnership with IBM, we are bringing the best of Excel onto the blockchain.”
Nothing came out of this partnership because it wasn’t real — it was an April Fools’ joke.
At the time, blockchain was all the rage. In those heady days, I wrote about how “Blockchain Will Solve, Save, Cure Everything” based on these actual headlines:
- 7 Ways The Blockchain Can Save The Environment and Stop Climate Change
- How Blockchain Will Save Freedom Of Speech
- The Blockchain will save healthcare and shipping billions
- Here’s how blockchain can reduce inequality
Blockchain is still around — although it didn’t really solve, save, or cure anything. Eventually, the circus tents were pulled down and everyone left town. But the circus is back. The tents are up again — come in, come in for the next Greatest Show on Earth: Agentic AI.
You know what else is still around, as popular as ever: Excel spreadsheets.
In a survey we conducted in December 2022 with members of our Indago supply chain research community — who are all supply chain and logistics executives from manufacturing, retail, and distribution companies — almost half of respondents (48%) expected Excel to definitely remain king of supply chain apps in 2023, compared to 45% who said the same in 2019. It’s time we ask our members again, but I’m willing to bet that Excel retains the crown.
As I’ve said many times before, Excel is like a cockroach that refuses to die, despite decades of software innovation and billions of dollars spent trying to replace it.
But why? I outlined “5 Reasons Why Excel Is Champ Of Supply Chain Apps” way back in November 2013:
1. It’s easy to learn and use.
2. You can quickly and easily configure it to your specific needs and preferences.
3. It’s highly portable: you can use it almost everywhere, and share it easily with others.
4. It’s ubiquitous.
5. It’s inexpensive.
In short, Excel is everything most enterprise software applications are not — at least not historically.
Which brings me to this email I received recently:
This ain’t no April Fools’ joke.
At first, I laughed. It’s like how to use EV batteries in your horse and carriage.
On second thought, if we’re still using Excel spreadsheets despite the billions of dollars companies have invested in enterprise software over the years — and if we’re going to keep using Excel despite the billions now being invested in AI — then maybe the real mistake is pretending Excel will ever go away.
Maybe the smarter move is to stop fighting it and start designing around it.
If Agentic AI can make spreadsheets smarter, faster, and less fragile — helping people make better decisions instead of just creating more complexity — then marrying the two might not be ridiculous at all.
As the Borg in Star Trek famously said, “Resistance is futile.”
The real question is whether we use that inevitability to our advantage or just keep pretending the spreadsheet problem has been solved.
