{"id":93590,"date":"2025-09-29T23:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T23:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/93590\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T23:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T23:48:07","slug":"microsoft-wants-everyone-to-start-vibe-working-with-ai-agents-in-excel-and-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/93590\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft wants everyone to start ‘vibe working’ with AI agents in Excel and Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft Corp. envisions a future where everyone starts \u201cvibe working\u201d with the launch of its new Agent Mode in Office Apps and Agent Mode in Copilot Chat offering new ways to automate business and personal work.<\/p>\n

The company said the new against will \u201cdo work on your behalf\u201d, by automatically spinning up \u201chigh-quality Office documents, spreadsheets and presentations\u201d upon the user\u2019s command.<\/p>\n

For instance, Agent Mode in Microsoft 365 Copilot<\/a> makes it simple for users to collaborate with an artificial intelligence assistant on multistep tasks in documents such as Excel and Word, the company said. The update will enable unskilled workers to access more complex functionality in its productivity tools and improve the quality of the content they create, the company claims.<\/p>\n

In a blog post<\/a> today, Microsoft\u2019s Sumit Chauhan, who is Corporate Vice President of Microsoft\u2019s Office Product Group, said the agents bring a \u201cvibe coding\u201d-like experience to the Office ecosystem. Users now have the ability to \u201csteer\u201d Microsoft\u2019s Copilot tool from within those apps as it orchestrates complex tasks within them. \u201cIt\u2019s the new pattern of work for human-agent collaboration\u201d, Chauhan promised.<\/p>\n

Agent Mode in Excel<\/a> is said to make advanced modeling tools \u201capproachable for most everyone\u201d, Chauhan said. It provides almost every user with the ability to \u201cevaluate results, fix issues and repeat the processes until the outcome is verified\u201d, simply by telling it what to do in natural language. \u201cIt\u2019s like you\u2019re handing off work to an Excel expert, which you steer and guide,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Chauhan offered up a number of examples of what Agent Mode in Excel can do. For instance, a user can direct the agent to analyze sales data and transform it into rich, visual insights. Upon this request, Agent Mode will select the best formulas to use to create those data visualizations and then get to work implementing them. Once done, it will share a summary of the results and the steps taken to validate its work.<\/p>\n

Agent Mode can also create a loan calculator that will figure out monthly payments based on user inputs, such as the loan amount, interest rate and loan term. It will then generate a payment schedule in a neatly formatted table. Alternatively, it can generate a monthly financial analysis of a small business\u2019s spending, complete with a breakdown by different product lines.<\/p>\n

Of course, much of this could already be done with the Microsoft 365 Copilot, but Agent Mode in Excel is said to be more accessible. It\u2019s also more accurate, Microsoft claims. In internal tests, Agent Mode achieved a score of 57.2% in Spreadsheet Bench<\/a> accuracy, which compares with just 20% for the original Copilot in Excel. That makes it superior to various other AI tools, including ChatGPT Agent, Shortcut.ai, Claude Files Opus 4.1 and OpenAI o3. However, it\u2019s notable that humans still achieve the highest score on that benchmark, at 71.3%.<\/p>\n

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Nonetheless, Microsoft believes that Agent Mode in Excel is more than accurate enough for most office tasks, and users can always check its accuracy by validating its results, the company said.<\/p>\n

As for Agent Mode in Word<\/a>, this is designed to make more advanced features available to users. It\u2019s true that most office employees are probably comfortable in Word and can already create a basic document \u2013 but they may not be familiar with many of its more advanced formatting tools for fleshing out documents and making them look more professional.<\/p>\n

According to Chauhan, it\u2019s designed to complete tasks such as drafting content and suggesting changes to existing documents, while asking users for their input during the process. The idea is that writing becomes \u201cmore of a dialogue than a task\u201d, he explained, resulting in \u201cfaster iteration, better ideas and a more engaging writing experience.\u201d The end result can take advantage of Word styles, formatting, and other features to make sure the document not only reads well but looks good.<\/p>\n

Microsoft said Agent Mode in Excel and Word is being made available today for business customers with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses, via the Frontier<\/a> early access program. There\u2019s also an Agent Mode for PowerPoint coming soon. Meanwhile, individual consumers with Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions can also access the new tools.<\/p>\n

Also announced today was a new Office Agent in Copilot<\/a>, which makes it possible for users to create Word and PowerPoint documents from directly within the Copilot Chat user interface. Excel integration will be added soon too, the company said.<\/p>\n

With this, all the user has to do is set Office Agent in Copilot a task, and it will follow up by clarifying the user\u2019s intent, then engaging in web-based research to create whatever document is required. As it does this, it will reveal its \u201cchain of thought\u201d processing, so users can check how it\u2019s going about each task. Once it\u2019s finished, the Office Agent in Copilot will present a preview of its new document. At this juncture, the user can then go through it and request any amendments they feel are necessary.<\/p>\n

Office Agent in Copilot is launching today via the Frontier program for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers only, so business users will have to wait a little longer, though \u201ccommercial support\u201d is promised at a later date.<\/p>\n

Microsoft has been striving to improve the capabilities of Microsoft 365 Copilot and help automate more business and personal work. Earlier this month, it unveiled new role-based AI assistants in Copilot for finance, sales and services teams that operate in Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and Viva Engage.<\/p>\n

Image: Microsoft<\/p>\n

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