Microsoft has launched Agent Mode in Excel and Word, introducing a new phase of “vibe working” within its Microsoft 365 Copilot tools. The feature allows users to generate complex spreadsheets and documents through a simple AI prompt.

“Today we’re bringing vibe working to Microsoft 365 Copilot with Agent Mode in Office apps and Office Agent in Copilot chat,” said Sumit Chauhan, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Office Product Group. “In the same way vibe coding has transformed software development, the latest reasoning models in Copilot unlock agentic productivity for Office artifacts.”

Agent Mode in Excel and Word Unlocks Complex Document Automation

Agent Mode is a more advanced version of Copilot inside Excel and Word. It is designed to simplify the more technical aspects of Office documents by using planning and reasoning in real time.

“It’s not just simple assistive short answers, but board-ready presentations or documents,” said Chauhan. “It’s work, quite frankly, that a first-year consultant would do, delivered in minutes.”

Agent Mode uses OpenAI’s GPT-5 model to break down each step in document creation and perform them like a visible macro, showing its actions in a sidebar.

Microsoft emphasized that Agent Mode in Excel helps users create files that are “auditable, refreshable, and verifiable.”

Copilot Chat Expands with New Office Agent Powered by Anthropic AI

A new Office Agent in Copilot chat, powered by Anthropic models, has also been introduced. This AI assistant can create PowerPoint presentations and Word documents directly from a prompt.

“PowerPoint is one of the most used tools for creating presentations, but over the last two years AI has often fallen short when creating slides,” said Chauhan. “Office Agent changes that.”

Office Agent performs web-based research and provides live slide previews inside chat. It is part of Microsoft’s effort to differentiate Office from other AI tools that generate content across formats.

Real-Time Planning and Transparency in Excel Workflows

Microsoft reported that Agent Mode in Excel scored 57.2 percent accuracy in SpreadsheetBench, a benchmark for spreadsheet-editing AI models. This outperformed Shortcut.ai, ChatGPT with .xlsx support, and Claude Files Opus 4.1, but remained behind human accuracy of 71.3 percent.

Microsoft said it has been cautious in adding AI to Excel because it powers vital business operations. “[Agent Mode] lets you build sheets that are auditable, refreshable, and verifiable,” Chauhan said. “We have spent a ton of time making sure that the validation loop on all of these sub-agents is pretty tight.”

Vibe Writing Turns Word into a Conversational Workflow

Agent Mode in Word goes further than previous features like rewrite and summarize. It introduces “vibe writing,” a process where Copilot interacts with the user to draft, refine, and clarify documents.

Users can generate content such as monthly reports using prior data and have Copilot summarize key highlights and compare results to earlier versions. “Copilot makes suggestions to keep the process flowing, so writing feels more like a dialogue than a task,” said Chauhan.

Microsoft Explores OpenAI and Anthropic Models Across Office Tools

While OpenAI continues to power AI in Office apps, Microsoft is incorporating Anthropic models into its broader AI strategy. Anthropic’s technology is being used through Microsoft’s Copilot chat, which operates on Amazon Web Services.

“We are committed to OpenAI, but we are starting to explore with the model family to understand the strength that different models bring and understand how we build the best composition for our products,” Chauhan said. “We are looking at the entire family of models, wherever cutting edge work happens.”

Agent Mode and Office Agent are available starting today through the Frontier program for Microsoft 365 Copilot customers or Microsoft 365 Personal / Family subscribers in the United States. Both Agent Mode tools are launching on the web versions of Word and Excel, with desktop support coming soon.

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This article was created with AI assistance.