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Adaptive Planning
Last Updated: 2026-05-08
Use Ask Workday for Adaptive Planning in Google Sheets

Use Ask Workday for Adaptive Planning in Google Sheets

From your Adaptive Planning reports in Google Sheets, you can access Ask Workday for Adaptive Planning (Ask Workday) to ask questions about your data. Ask Workday uses Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI) and advanced algorithms to answer your questions. See Concept: Ask Workday for Adaptive Planning.
Ask Workday:
  • Provides auto-completed suggestions to help you find relevant data, but you can also ask free-form questions to get:
    • General insights to your data.
    • Summaries that you can export to slides.
    • Charts and tables that you can add to the spreadsheet report.
  • Enables you to explore hidden or less-visible model elements, such as accounts, dimensions, attributes, time periods, versions, and data that aren’t displayed on the report.
  • Understands the context of the accounts, time periods, and filters set on your report and only returns the relevant data.
    Example: For a report on your income statement accounts, you can ask to view data for a certain level. Ask Workday returns data for the level on the accounts and during the time periods of the report. You don’t have to specify those details. You can also specifically ask about accounts and time periods that aren’t on your report.
  • Doesn't support:
    • Advanced calculations
    • Creation or update of reports
    • Forecasts based on the data in your report
  1. From the Workday add-on, click the
    Ask Workday
     icon.
  2. (Optional) Click these tiles:
    • Summarize this Report
      : Gives an overview of the data.
    • Detect Anomalies
      : Gives details on unexpected data
  3. (Optional) In the
    How can I help you
     field, start typing these options and select the best suggestion from the auto-complete menu. To get the most relevant suggestions, refresh the report often as you expand and collapse various elements.
    • Summary
      : Get suggested questions for summaries of accounts, time periods, or combinations of the two.
    • Anomalies
      : Get suggested questions for anomalies in specific accounts, time periods, or both.
    • Trend
      : Get suggested questions for trends for accounts over time periods.
    • Variance
      : Get suggested questions for variances between versions by time periods.
    • Compare
      : Get suggested questions for comparisons between accounts, versions, and time periods.
    • Break down
      : Get suggested questions for the break down of accounts by dimensions, other accounts, or time.
  4. (Optional) Ask freeform questions. For best results, follow these best practices:
    • Limit the scope of your questions to reporting and analysis of the data itself.
    • Use the exact names of the metadata.
    • Use the account codes as well as the name of the accounts. Example: What’s the total for the 4100 Product Revenue account in FY 2024.
    • Try to ask about elements that are on the report. Example: If the report displays values for March through July, ask about data during that range.
    • Take cues from the suggested questions that pop up when you start typing.
  5. (Optional) For responses that include tables or charts, use the icons at the top of the responses to interact with the visualizations. You can also hover over the data points in the charts for more details.
    • Change Chart Type
      : Select different chart formats to display the data.
    • Create New Report
      : Use the chart with the associated data to create a new live report into a new sheet. The add-on reloads and the conversation history is removed. You can then update the new report.
  6. (Optional) For responses that include tables or charts, click
    Export
    to download summaries, charts, and tables to slide decks.
    • Export as Google Slides
      : Downloads to a Google slide deck on your Google Drive. Click
      Create Slide Deck
      Open Slide Deck
      .
      The title of the deck includes the name of the spreadsheet and the text "Presentation". You can edit the text and the charts on the slides using native Google Slides functionality. When you edit a chart in Google Sheets, it updates the same chart in Google Slides.
    • Export as Powerpoint
      : Downloads to PowerPoint on your computer. Your computer might prompt you to save the presentation or it might automatically save the presentation with the title,
      Ask Workday Presentation
      . You can change the title, the data, and charts
  7. To leave feedback, click
    Thumbs up
     or
    Thumbs down
    . For thumbs down, you must add a comment, or you can cancel.