Spreadsheets as Output, Not Input

You export a messy CSV from your CRM, drag it into Cowork, and type "analyze this." Back comes a tidy paragraph: revenue is up, three deals look stalled, churn ticked down. It reads well. You nod. Then you close the tab, and the analysis is gone: a summary of a file you still have to open in Excel to actually use.

The next week you do it again. Same export, same disposable paragraph. You're using Cowork as a reader, and a reader hands the work back to you.

The tool isn't underperforming. The direction is backwards. Most people point Cowork at a spreadsheet they already have. The higher-leverage move is to have Cowork produce the spreadsheet you don't want to build.

#The upload-and-ask habit

Reading a spreadsheet is a real capability, and sometimes it's exactly right: a one-off question about a file someone sent you. But it's a low ceiling. The output is prose. Prose doesn't sort, filter, recalculate, or drop into the deck you owe finance on Friday. You read the answer and then rebuild it by hand in the format you needed all along.