Nothing you’ve described sounds like a valid reason to move “a couple of spreadsheets” to a database system which might require: budget planning, database administrator, system design, server, colocation, query optimization, report system, monitoring, user interface, backup/recovery plan, authentication system, change management logs, user training, business process analysis, etc.

But could the hundreds of employees continue to make changes to the DB if it was moved out of sheets?

Spreadsheets have their place, not every sheet needs to be migrated to a database application. But some certainly should.

So it probably would have been better to give them an excel-like frontend connected to an sql server?

I hate to break it to you, but an equally likely outcome of the introduction of AGI would be to replace you instead, and give those users exactly what they asked for, even if it's not optimal (or improving it, but preserving the interface they are used to).

I am not a lawyer, and I do not know your jurisdiction, but where I come from, it would be illegal for me to work off-the-clock for my employer. It opens up many cans of worms regarding liability, accounting, etc. I have to wonder whether those sorts of things were going through the heads which gave you "blank stares". Did you attempt to compromise by offering to do it on the clock instead?

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> I really hope AGI will soon be able to replace those humans that cannot be reasoned with logic.

Great use case