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Help Center / Getting Started / AI Sheets App Overview

AI Sheets App Overview

AI Sheets App Overview

Create, share, and analyze structured data with an AI-powered spreadsheet that lives inside your workplace platform — no separate spreadsheet vendor, no switching tabs.


What is the AI Sheets App?

AI Sheets is a collaborative spreadsheet application built directly into MangoApps. It combines the familiar grid-editing experience of traditional spreadsheets with an AI that actually works your data — generating columns, answering questions with exactly computed numbers, applying confirmed-and-undoable edits, filling columns in bulk, and running AI automation actions — all without leaving your workplace platform.

Describe what you want to track and AI suggests the column layout. Ask a question in plain English and get filters, charts, or exact aggregates computed over every row. Tell the AI to change the data and review a preview before anything is written. Need calculations? Add a formula column — written in expression syntax or authored by AI from an English description.

Core Value Proposition:

  • 🎯 Instant Structure — Describe your use case and AI generates the right columns in seconds
  • ✏️ AI That Edits, Safely — Ask for changes in plain English; every AI edit is previewed, confirmed, and undoable
  • 📊 Exact Answers — Counts, totals, and averages are computed over all rows as SQL, never estimated from a sample
  • 🧮 Formula Columns — Per-row calculations with if(), round(), days_between() and more — AI writes the expression from your description
  • 🤝 Built-in Collaboration — Share sheets with teammates as viewers or editors, or publish a public read-only link

At a Glance

⏱️ Setup Time 🔗 Integrations 📂 Column Types 🗄️ Row Limit
Under 1 minute Forms, Google Sheets, CSV/Excel, Webhooks 9 types (incl. Formula) Up to 50,000

Perfect For:

  • 🏢 Operations Teams — Track inventory, inspections, shift coverage, and field visit data in shareable grids
  • 👥 Project Managers — Organize tasks, deadlines, and assignees with real-time collaboration
  • 📈 HR & People Ops — Build employee directories, onboarding checklists, and recruiting pipelines without IT involvement

How It Works

Sheet Lifecycle

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        AI SHEETS WORKFLOW                               │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                         │
│   ┌──────────────┐         ┌──────────────┐         ┌──────────────┐   │
│   │  CREATE       │───▶     │  POPULATE     │───▶     │  ANALYZE     │   │
│   │              │         │              │         │              │   │
│   │ • Blank      │         │ • Type data  │         │ • AI query   │   │
│   │ • AI columns │         │ • Paste      │         │ • Filters    │   │
│   │ • CSV import │         │ • CSV import │         │ • Charts     │   │
│   │ • Google imp │         │ • Google imp │         │ • Summarize  │   │
│   │ • From Form  │         │              │         │              │   │
│   │ • Template   │         │              │         │              │   │
│   └──────────────┘         └──────────────┘         └──────────────┘   │
│                                    │                                    │
│                    ┌───────────────┼───────────────┐                    │
│                    ▼               ▼               ▼                    │
│            ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐          │
│            │   SHARE      │ │   EXPORT     │ │   VERSION    │          │
│            │              │ │              │ │   CONTROL    │          │
│            │ • Viewers    │ │ • CSV        │ │              │          │
│            │ • Editors    │ │ • Excel      │ │ • History    │          │
│            │ • Public URL │ │ • Template   │ │ • Revert     │          │
│            └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘          │
│                                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Integration Ecosystem

                              ┌─────────────────┐
                              │    AI SHEETS    │
                              └────────┬────────┘
                                       │
    ┌─────────┬──────────┬─────────────┼────────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
    ▼         ▼          ▼             ▼            ▼          ▼          ▼
┌────────┐┌────────┐┌────────┐  ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐┌────────┐┌────────┐
│ Google ││ CSV /  ││ Forms  │  │ Real-time││ Webhooks ││ Ask AI ││Notifi- │
│ Sheets ││ Excel  ││(Bridge)│  │WebSocket ││(HTTP Req)││ Agent  ││cations │
└────────┘└────────┘└────────┘  └──────────┘ └──────────┘└────────┘└────────┘

Key Features

🧠 AI-Powered Column Generation

Describe what you want to track in plain English and AI generates a complete column schema with appropriate types — either when creating a brand-new sheet or when adding columns to an existing one.

Feature Description
Create with AI On New Sheet → ✨ AI, describe the sheet in one field and click Generate — AI proposes both a name and a full set of columns; review, tweak, and click Create Sheet
AI-suggested name You no longer have to name the sheet up front — AI derives a concise title from your description, and you can edit it before creating
Natural-language prompts Type “Employee onboarding checklist with status, due dates, and assignee” and get a ready-made schema
8 column types Text, Number, Date, Checkbox (yes/no), Dropdown, Email, URL, Currency — all auto-detected
Dropdown options AI generates the choices for Dropdown-type columns
Instant review Preview and edit the suggested name and columns (label, type, add, remove) before saving
Add to existing sheets On a sheet’s Edit page, the AI Column Suggestions box appends AI-generated columns to what you already have

Use Case: A manager needs a safety inspection log. On New Sheet → AI they type “Track safety inspections with findings, severity, location, and remediation status” — AI names it “Safety Inspection Log” and proposes the columns; they adjust one type and click Create.


📊 AI Data Analysis with Exact Answers

Ask questions about your data in plain English. The AI can filter or sort the grid, summarize, suggest charts — and for anything numeric, it computes an exact answer over all rows.

Feature Description
Exact aggregates “How many deals per stage?” or “Total amount by region” → the AI emits a query plan and the answer is computed as SQL over every row (count, sum, avg, min, max, distinct count, group-by) — never estimated from a sample
Provenance Every computed answer states how many rows it was computed over, so results are auditable
Filter responses “Show rows where stage is Negotiation” → applies filters directly to the grid
Sort responses “Sort by amount, highest first” → applies the sort to the grid
Summary responses “What are the top trends?” → returns a concise text analysis
Chart responses “Chart deals by stage” → suggests bar, line, pie, or doughnut visualizations
Follow-up context The assistant remembers earlier turns, so “now only Q2” or “same but by region” resolve correctly
Context-aware prompts Suggested questions generated dynamically based on your column types

✏️ AI Editing with Confirm & Undo

Tell the AI to change your data — in the same AI panel you use for questions. The AI never writes directly: it proposes a structured change, the system selects the target rows deterministically, and you review a preview before anything is applied.

Feature Description
Edit types Update rows, delete rows, add rows, add a column, rename a column or edit its options, delete duplicate rows
Preview first See how many rows are affected and sample before/after values before confirming
One-click undo Every applied AI edit snapshots the affected rows to the activity log and can be reverted
Safety caps Edits target at most 1,000 rows per operation; AI-added rows are capped at 100 per request
Admin control A dedicated “AI edits” toggle lets admins disable AI writes while keeping AI questions on

Use Case: “Mark every row with status Overdue as Escalated and set the owner to Priya” — the AI shows a preview (“14 rows will be updated”), you confirm, and the change lands with an undo entry in the activity log.


🧮 Formula Columns

Add computed columns whose values derive from the other columns in each row — written by you in expression syntax, or authored by AI from a plain-English description.

Feature Description
Expression language Arithmetic (+ - * / %), comparisons, and/or logic, string literals, and functions: if, round, abs, floor, ceil, min, max, sum, concat, upper, lower, length, trim, coalesce, days_between, today, year, month, day, number
AI authoring Describe the formula (“20% tip on total”, “days until renewal”) and AI writes the expression, with a live preview against your rows
Always current Values are computed on the fly at read time — they update automatically as row data changes and are included in CSV/Excel exports
Validated Expressions are checked at save time: unknown column references and syntax errors are rejected; a runtime error in one row shows a blank cell, never a broken sheet

ℹ️ Formulas are per column (the same expression computed for every row) — there are no per-cell formulas like =SUM(A1:A5) and no cross-sheet references. For whole-column totals, ask the AI and get an exact computed answer.


✨ AI Column Fill (Enrichment)

Have AI fill an entire column — classify, extract, translate, or normalize a value for every matching row.

Feature Description
Fill existing or new columns Target an existing column or have the enrichment create one (text, number, date, boolean, select, email, URL, or currency)
Preview before running A small sample is filled synchronously so you can judge quality before committing
Background execution Runs as a background job in batches with live progress you can watch from the AI panel
Skip or overwrite By default rows that already have a value are skipped; opt in to overwrite
Undoable The pre-fill values are snapshotted, so an enrichment run can be reverted like any AI edit
Scale limits Up to 1,000 rows per run

Use Case: A sheet of raw customer feedback gets a new “Sentiment” select column — “Classify each row’s feedback as Positive, Neutral, or Negative” fills it in the background while you keep working.


🧹 Duplicate Finder & Cleanup

Find and remove duplicate rows with deterministic matching — the AI only picks which columns define sameness; SQL picks the rows.

Feature Description
Ask in plain English “Find duplicate contacts by email” → a report of duplicate groups with counts and sample values
Normalized matching Values are compared after trimming and lowercasing, on up to 5 key columns
Safe cleanup “Delete the duplicates” keeps the first row of each group and removes the rest — previewed, confirmed, and undoable like every AI edit

📝 Spreadsheet Editing

A full-featured grid powered by Handsontable with autosave, undo/redo, find & replace, and keyboard shortcuts.

Feature Description
Inline editing Click any cell to edit; changes autosave
Copy-paste Paste data from Excel or Google Sheets directly into the grid
Undo / Redo Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y with full history
Find & Replace Ctrl+F for search, Ctrl+H for find-and-replace
Keyboard navigation Tab, Enter, arrow keys, Delete to clear cells
Bulk row operations Select multiple rows to duplicate or delete in batch (up to 500)
Column width persistence Drag column borders to resize; widths are saved automatically
Conditional formatting 15 conditions (equals, greater than, contains, empty, etc.) with 5 color styles
Display formats Per-column formats: thousands separators and percent for numbers, 0- or 2-decimal currency, ISO / US / long date styles
Density toggle Switch between comfortable and compact row heights; your preference is remembered
Focus mode Expand the grid full-screen (toolbar + grid + status bar); press Esc to exit

🔗 Import & Export

Bring data in from multiple sources and export in multiple formats.

Direction Method Details
Import CSV file upload Auto-matches columns by header label or key; AI maps ambiguous headers (synonyms, abbreviations) and you confirm the mapping before importing
Import Google Sheets URL Fetches public sheets via CSV export API
Import Create from Form Maps form fields to sheet columns automatically (15+ field types)
Export CSV (all data) Server-side export with formula injection protection
Export CSV (visible rows) Client-side export of currently filtered/visible data
Export Excel (.xlsx) Formatted workbook with typed columns (currency, dates, numbers)
Export Template CSV Headers-only CSV for offline data entry

💡 Pro Tip: Use the “Download Template” button to generate a CSV with your column headers, fill it in offline, then import it back — great for collecting data from teams without MangoApps access.


👥 Sharing & Collaboration

Share sheets internally with granular permissions or publish a read-only link for external audiences.

Feature Description
Viewer permission Can view data but cannot edit
Editor permission Can edit data and columns
Owner permission Full control: edit, share, delete, manage settings
Public link Token-based read-only URL — anyone with the link can view
Require authentication Optionally require login for public links (restricts to business members)
Regenerate link Invalidate existing public links instantly

🔄 Real-Time Collaboration

When multiple users open the same sheet, edits sync in real-time via WebSocket (ActionCable).

Feature Description
Live row sync Row creates, updates, and deletes broadcast to all connected users
Presence indicators See who else is viewing the sheet in the toolbar
Heartbeat TTL Presence auto-clears after 60 seconds of inactivity

💬 Cell-Level Comments

Leave comments on specific cells (row + column) for threaded discussions without cluttering the data.

Feature Description
Scoped to cell Each comment targets a specific row and column
Edit / Delete Authors can edit their own comments; sheet owners can delete any
Collaboration context Discuss data quality, request changes, or flag issues inline

📋 Saved Views

Save combinations of filters and sorting as named views for quick access.

Feature Description
Personal views Each user can create their own saved views per sheet
Filter operators 10 operators: equals, not equals, greater than, less than, contains, starts with, empty, not empty, and more
Sort direction Sort any column ascending or descending
Default view Mark one view as your default when opening the sheet

📈 Charts & Visualization

Generate visual charts from your data directly inside the sheet.

Feature Description
Chart types Bar, Line, Pie, Doughnut
AI-suggested charts Ask “Chart deals by stage” and the AI suggests the right chart type and axes
Inline chart panel Charts render in a collapsible panel above the grid

🕰️ Version History & Audit Trail

Full change tracking with the ability to view and revert previous versions.

Feature Description
Sheet versioning Tracks changes to name, description, and column schema via PaperTrail
Row versioning Tracks changes to individual row data
Revert Restore a previous version of the sheet schema with one click
Activity log 11 tracked actions: created, updated, deleted, imported, exported, shared, duplicated, columns_changed, row_created, row_deleted, and more

📄 Templates

Start from pre-built templates or save your own sheets as reusable templates.

System Templates (built-in):

Template Category Columns
Project Tracker Project Task, Status, Due Date, Assignee, Priority, Notes
Budget Tracker Finance Item, Category, Amount, Date, Notes
Contact List General Name, Email, Phone, Company, Role
Inventory General Item, SKU, Quantity, Price, Location
Event Planning Project Task, Responsible, Deadline, Status, Budget

User Templates:

  • Save any sheet as a template (owner only)
  • Create new sheets from your saved templates
  • Delete templates you no longer need

Sample Data (Admin):

  • Load 4 pre-built demo sheets (Sales Pipeline, Product Roadmap, Employee Directory, Bug Tracker) with realistic sample data — ideal for training and demonstrations.

🔔 Notifications

Type Description
Collaborator Added Notifies a user when they are added as a viewer or editor on a sheet
Import Complete Confirms how many rows were imported after a CSV or Google Sheets import
Sheet Duplicated Notifies the original owner when someone duplicates their sheet

⚡ Automation Workflows

Build trigger-condition-action rules that fire automatically when your data changes — no code required.

6 Trigger Types:

Trigger When It Fires
Row Created A new row is added to the sheet
Row Updated Any field in a row is modified
Row Deleted A row is removed
Field Changed A specific column’s value changes (optionally from/to specific values)
Schedule On a recurring interval (minimum 5 minutes)
Rows Imported After a CSV or Google Sheets import completes

9 Action Types:

Action What It Does
Notify Collaborators Send in-app notifications to all sheet collaborators
Notify User Send a notification to a user identified by a column value
Send Email Send an email to a fixed address or address from a column
Update Fields Auto-set field values on the triggering row (e.g., set status to “Reviewed”)
Create Row Auto-create a new row with template-driven data
HTTP Request Send a webhook (POST/GET/PUT) with row data to an external URL
AI Fill Column 🤖 On row events, AI derives a value for a column from the rest of the row (e.g., auto-categorize each new entry)
AI Summary Digest 🤖 On a schedule, send collaborators a digest with exactly computed stats (count/sum/avg/min/max, optional group-by) plus optional AI commentary
AI Anomaly Alert 🤖 On a schedule, watch a metric and notify collaborators only when it changes more than a configured percentage vs. the previous run

Rules support conditions (filter by column values) and template variables ({{col_key}}) in all text fields. Up to 25 rules per sheet, with 10 actions and 50 conditions per rule.

ℹ️ AI actions have guardrails: AI Fill Column runs only on row-event triggers (never on a schedule, which would re-run per row every interval — use enrichment for bulk fills), while AI Summary Digest and AI Anomaly Alert run only on schedule triggers. All three respect the admin’s “AI automation actions” toggle, re-checked at execution time.

AI Rule Builder: Describe your automation in plain English (e.g., “When status changes to Completed, notify all collaborators”) and AI generates the trigger, conditions, and actions for you.

💡 Pro Tip: Combine a “field_changed” trigger with an “http_request” action to push sheet updates to Slack, Teams, or any webhook-compatible tool in real time.


🤖 AI Agent

AI Sheets includes an AI Agent accessible from the Ask AI sidebar throughout MangoApps. The agent can read and write your sheets — every write tool requires an explicit confirmation before it runs.

Read tools:

Tool What It Does
List My Sheets Browse your recent sheets with column and row counts
Get Sheet Data View rows and columns from a specific sheet
Search Sheet Data Search within a sheet’s rows for specific values
Get Sheet Summary Get an AI-generated summary of a sheet’s data
Query Sheet with AI Ask natural-language questions about any sheet’s data
Aggregate Sheet Data Compute exact counts, totals, and averages over all rows, with group-by
Find Duplicates Report duplicate rows matched on the columns you name

Write tools (confirmation required):

Tool What It Does
Create Sheet Create a new sheet with AI-suggested columns
Add / Update / Delete Rows Change row data from chat, with the same preview-and-undo pipeline as the in-sheet AI panel
Add / Update Column Extend or adjust the sheet’s schema
Update Sheet Rename a sheet or edit its details
Enrich Rows Kick off an AI column fill in the background
Delete Duplicate Rows Clean up duplicates, keeping the first of each group
Create Automation Build an automation rule from your description

⭐ Organization & Navigation

Feature Description
Star/Favorite Star important sheets for quick access in the Starred tab
Tags Add comma-separated tags to sheets; filter by tag on the index page
Search Search sheets by name with instant ILIKE filtering
Tabs My Sheets, Starred, Shared with Me, Templates, Trash
Soft delete Deleted sheets move to Trash; restore or permanently delete from there

⚙️ Admin Settings

Setting Description Default
AI Features (master) Master switch for everything AI: questions and computed answers, column suggestions, formula generation, and import mapping Enabled
AI Edits Separately allow or block AI-proposed data changes (update/add/delete rows, columns, duplicate cleanup) — turn off to keep AI read-only Enabled
AI Column Fill (Enrichment) Separately allow or block background AI column fills Enabled
AI Automation Actions Separately allow or block the AI action types in automation rules (fill / digest / anomaly alert) Enabled
Public Links Toggle whether sheet owners can generate public read-only links Disabled
Max Rows Per Sheet Configurable limit from 100 to 50,000 5,000
Sample Data Load or delete pre-built demo sheets for training

ℹ️ The three granular switches sit under the master switch: turning off “AI Features” disables everything, while the sub-toggles let you keep AI analysis on and disable only writes, enrichment, or AI automations. Background jobs re-check these toggles at execution time, so flipping one off takes effect even for already-queued work.


User Roles & Permissions

Role Capabilities
Employee (Sheet Owner) Create sheets, edit data & columns, share with collaborators, generate public links, export, duplicate, star, tag, delete, view history
Employee (Editor) Edit data & columns, import data, add comments, view history, export, duplicate
Employee (Viewer) View data (read-only grid), export, view activity log and version history
Public Link Visitor View data only (read-only, no editing, no login required unless configured)
Admin All Employee capabilities + manage app settings (AI toggle, public links, row limits, sample data)

How We Compare

See how MangoApps AI Sheets stacks up against leading spreadsheet and data management platforms:

Feature MangoApps AI Sheets Airtable Smartsheet Google Sheets
AI Column Generation
AI Data Querying (NL)
Real-time Collaboration
Version History & Revert
Cell-level Comments
Public Sharing Links
Built-in Templates
CSV & Excel Export
Google Sheets Import N/A
Form-to-Sheet Bridge
Conditional Formatting
Automation Rules (triggers + actions) ⚡ Limited
AI Agent (Ask AI sidebar)
Integrated in Workplace Platform
No Per-Seat Spreadsheet License

Why MangoApps AI Sheets?

  • 🔗 Unified Platform — AI Sheets lives inside MangoApps alongside Forms, Tasks, Notifications, and your org directory — no separate tool to manage
  • 💰 One License, Everything Included — A single per-tenant app license covers the grid, the AI, and automations; no separate spreadsheet vendor or AI add-on fees
  • 🤖 AI-Native — Column generation and natural-language querying are built in, not bolted on as a premium tier

Getting Started

For Employees

  1. Navigate to Apps > AI Sheets from the sidebar
  2. Click New Sheet, then pick the ✨ AI tab
  3. Describe what you want to track and click Generate — AI suggests a name and columns; edit anything, then click Create Sheet
  4. Start typing data or paste from an existing spreadsheet
  5. Click the Share button to invite teammates

Prefer to start another way? The Blank tab lets you name a sheet and add columns yourself, and the CSV, Google, Template, and Form tabs create a sheet from existing data.

For Managers

  1. Create sheets for your team’s workflows (project tracking, inspection logs, coverage trackers)
  2. Use Templates to standardize data collection across your team
  3. Share sheets with team members as Editors for collaborative data entry
  4. Use the AI button to analyze trends and generate charts

For Administrators

  1. Navigate to AI Sheets > Settings from the sidebar
  2. Configure AI Features, Public Links, and Max Rows Per Sheet
  3. Click Load Sample Data to create demo sheets for training
  4. Review the Templates gallery and create organization-wide templates

Best Practices

  • Use AI column generation for new sheets — it picks the right column types (currency, date, email) and dropdown options automatically
  • Download the template CSV before asking others to fill in data offline — ensures headers match
  • Star your most-used sheets so they appear in the Starred tab for quick access
  • Use saved views to create filtered perspectives (e.g., “My Tasks”, “Overdue Items”) without affecting other users
  • Check version history before making large changes — you can always revert
  • Use tags to organize sheets by project, department, or category

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I create a sheet with AI?
A: Click New Sheet and choose the ✨ AI tab. Describe what you want to track in one sentence and click Generate — AI suggests a sheet name and a full set of typed columns (dates, currency, dropdowns, and more). Review and edit the name or any column, then click Create Sheet. You can also create sheets conversationally from the Ask AI sidebar.

Q: Can I import data from CSV or Google Sheets?
A: Yes. You can import CSV files by uploading them directly, or import from Google Sheets by pasting a public URL. Both methods auto-match column headers to your sheet’s schema. You can also create a brand-new sheet from a CSV or Google Sheet import.

Q: Is there a row limit?
A: The default limit is 5,000 rows per sheet, but administrators can adjust this from 100 to 50,000 in Settings.

Q: Who can see my sheet?
A: Only you (the owner) can see a sheet by default. You can explicitly share it with specific users as Viewers or Editors. If your admin has enabled public links, you can also generate a read-only URL for external sharing.

Q: Does AI Sheets support formulas?
A: Yes — as formula columns. Add a column of type Formula and write a per-row expression (arithmetic, if(), round(), concat(), days_between(), and more), or describe it in English and let AI write the expression with a live preview. Values compute on the fly and are included in exports. There are no per-cell formulas like =SUM(A1:A5) or cross-sheet references — for whole-column totals, ask the AI (“What is the total by category?”) and get an exact answer computed over every row.

Q: Can the AI edit my data?
A: Yes, when your administrator has AI edits enabled. Ask for a change in the AI panel (“set all Overdue rows to Escalated”, “delete the duplicate contacts”) and the AI proposes it as a structured edit: you see a preview of how many rows are affected and sample before/after values, confirm to apply, and can undo the change afterward from the same panel. The AI never writes to rows directly, and edits are capped at 1,000 rows per operation.



Turn any data challenge into a structured, shareable, AI-analyzed spreadsheet — right inside your workplace.