The “Recommended PivotTables” Annoyance
Microsoft Excel includes several artificial intelligence and data analysis features designed to help users understand their datasets faster. One of the most prominent features is “Recommended PivotTables” (and the newer “Analyze Data” pane). When you select a large block of data and navigate to the Insert tab, Excel often analyzes your columns and automatically generates several pre-built PivotTables, suggesting ways to summarize your information. While this is helpful for beginners who don’t know how to build a PivotTable from scratch, experienced users find these automatic suggestions annoying. Clicking the wrong button often results in Excel creating a completely useless PivotTable on a brand new worksheet, cluttering up the workbook.
How to Bypass the Recommendations
You cannot permanently disable the underlying AI that generates the recommendations, but you can change your workflow to completely bypass the intrusive suggestion screen when creating a PivotTable.
The annoyance usually occurs when users click the large Recommended PivotTables button on the Insert tab. To stop Excel from generating these automatic summaries, you must train yourself to use the manual creation tool.
1. Select the data range (or click anywhere inside your formatted Table) that you want to analyze.
2. Go to the Insert tab on the ribbon.
3. Ignore the “Recommended PivotTables” button entirely. Instead, click the PivotTable button on the far left of the ribbon.
4. A “PivotTable from table or range” dialog box will appear. Simply verify the data range and choose whether you want it on a new worksheet or an existing one.
5. Click OK.
Excel will instantly drop a completely blank PivotTable template onto the sheet. It will not attempt to analyze your data or suggest rows and columns, allowing you to build the report exactly how you want it from the start.
How to Disable the “Analyze Data” Feature
If you are frustrated by the “Analyze Data” pane that automatically slides out from the right side of the screen offering charts and PivotTables, you can disable this specific AI feature in the global settings.
1. Open Excel and click File > Options.
2. In the “General” tab (which opens by default), scroll down to the section titled Privacy Settings.
3. Click the Privacy Settings… button.
4. Scroll down until you find the section labelled Experiences that analyze your content.
5. Uncheck the box that says Turn on experiences that analyze your content.
6. Click OK, then restart Excel. The “Analyze Data” button will be removed, and Excel will stop automatically scanning your data to suggest PivotTables.