Microsoft has launched a significant upgrade to its Microsoft 365 Copilot suite, bringing “vibe working” into Office applications through Agent Mode and Office Agent. The new features aim to transform how users create and manage documents, spreadsheets, and presentations by leveraging advanced AI reasoning models. Users can now initiate tasks with simple prompts and iteratively collaborate with Copilot, allowing the AI to orchestrate multi-step workflows and deliver polished outputs. Microsoft detailed the update in a blog post on September 29, 2025.
Agent Mode, currently available in Excel and Word, allows users to produce high-quality AI-generated spreadsheets and documents directly within the apps they use daily, with PowerPoint support expected soon. Office Agent extends the experience into Copilot chat, generating ready-to-use Word documents and professional PowerPoint presentations. This marks a shift toward agentic productivity, where human oversight guides AI-generated outputs.
Excel, long recognized as a versatile tool for data modeling, often requires advanced expertise to fully leverage. Agent Mode aims to democratize access to these capabilities by enabling AI to “speak Excel” natively. The feature is built on the richness of Excel artifacts and OpenAI’s latest reasoning models, allowing users to generate outputs, validate results, correct errors, and iterate until the outcome meets their requirements.
Microsoft highlights that the system functions like having an Excel expert at your disposal, with the user steering the process. SpreadsheetBench evaluations show Agent Mode achieving 57.2% accuracy across a variety of spreadsheet tasks, underscoring its potential for practical use in real-world scenarios.
Practical prompts for Agent Mode in Excel include generating financial monthly close reports for businesses, building loan calculators with detailed payment schedules, and creating personal budget trackers with conditional formatting and visual summaries. For instance, users can ask, “Run a full analysis on this sales data set. I want to understand some important insights to help me make decisions about my business. Make it visual,” and Agent Mode will produce formulas, new sheets, and visualizations while providing a summary of insights and validation steps.
In Word, Agent Mode transforms document creation into a conversational process. Users can instruct Copilot to summarize customer feedback, draft monthly reports, update executive summaries, or refine document styles according to brand guidelines. The AI drafts content, suggests improvements, and engages interactively, enabling faster iteration, more insightful ideas, and polished documents. Sample prompts include updating monthly reports with new data, creating project summaries with actionable next steps, or applying consistent formatting across a document.
Office Agent in Copilot chat extends these capabilities into a chat-first experience. Users can request PowerPoint decks or Word documents and collaborate with the AI in real time. The system begins by clarifying the user’s intent, including details like file length, visual themes, key focus areas, and audience. It then performs deep research, reasoning over relevant information, and generating outputs with quality checks integrated throughout the process. Users can tweak visuals, adjust formatting, and revise content interactively, or hand off the material to PowerPoint or Word for finalization. Example prompts include drafting a restaurant pop-up kitchen plan, creating retirement savings presentations for employees, or evaluating social media trends in specific industries.
Agent Mode for Excel is now available in the Frontier program for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed customers as well as Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers, initially on the web with desktop support coming soon. Agent Mode in Word is also rolling out in the Frontier program, with availability on the web immediately and desktop access forthcoming. Office Agent in Copilot chat is available today to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers in the United States, supporting English language output on the web.
Microsoft positions these updates as a step toward a new pattern of human-agent collaboration in workplace productivity. By combining AI reasoning with familiar Office tools, users can delegate complex, multi-step tasks to Copilot while retaining oversight and guidance. The company anticipates that this approach will expand across more Microsoft 365 applications in the future, further integrating AI into everyday workflows.
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