Use Smartsheet AI to Generate Your Project Dashboard Summary

What This Does

Smartsheet AI reads your project sheet data and writes a plain-language narrative summary of project health, key progress, and risks — so you spend your time reviewing and editing an accurate draft rather than staring at a blank update field every Monday morning.

Before You Start

• You have Smartsheet open and are on a Business or Enterprise plan (AI features require Business or higher)
• Your project sheet is up to date — at least task statuses, % complete, and due dates should be current
• You are viewing the sheet or dashboard you want to summarize

Steps

1. Open the AI panel

With your project sheet open, click the AI button in the top toolbar (sparkle icon, labeled "Smartsheet AI" or "Smart Assist"). A panel slides in on the right side of your screen.

2. Ask for a summary

In the AI panel chat box, type your request:

Smartsheet AI reads the visible sheet data and generates a structured paragraph-format summary. If you have a dashboard widget that uses sheet data, you can also click directly on a Summary widget and select Generate with AI.

3. Copy the summary to your status report or email

Review the AI output — it will be accurate to your sheet data but may use generic language. Personalize any client-specific details, correct anything that needs context AI doesn't have (organizational politics, verbal commitments from stakeholders), then copy it into your status report template, email, or executive dashboard.

4. Use Smart Columns for ongoing automation (optional next step)

In your sheet, right-click a column header and select Add Smart Column. Choose "Summarize" to create a column that auto-generates a one-line summary of each row's data. This is useful for a project portfolio sheet where you want one-sentence summaries of each active project without reading every row.

Real Example

Scenario: You manage a consulting engagement tracking sheet with 45 tasks across three workstreams. It's Monday morning and your weekly status email to the client is due by 10 AM.

What you type in the AI panel:

What you get: A 4–5 sentence summary: "Overall project status is Amber. Last week the team completed [workstream 1 deliverable] on schedule and [task name] ahead of plan. Three tasks in Workstream 2 are behind schedule by 2–4 days, primarily due to delayed client data access. Upcoming this week: requirements sign-off session (Wednesday) and architecture review (Friday). Risk: if data access is not resolved by Tuesday, go-live date is at risk." You personalize the client name and context, then send.

Tips

• Keep your sheet data clean: AI summaries are only as good as your task status fields. If half your tasks still say "Not Started" when they are in progress, the summary will reflect that gap — use this as a forcing function to keep the sheet current.
• Be specific in your prompt. "Summarize this sheet" gives a generic output. "Summarize for a non-technical executive audience, focusing on budget and timeline" gives a more targeted result.
• For portfolio sheets (multiple projects in one sheet), ask AI to "list projects by health status" to instantly see a red/amber/green breakdown across your portfolio.
• The Smart Assist panel also answers questions: "Which tasks are due this week?" or "Who has the most open tasks?" — use it instead of building custom filters for quick lookups.

Tool interfaces change — if a button has moved, look for similar AI/sparkle options in the top toolbar or right-click menus on columns and rows.