Microsoft launches ‘vibe working’ in Excel and Word with Agent Mode
You’ve probably heard of vibe coding — the trend of creating apps through a simple AI prompt instead of traditional programming. Now, Microsoft wants to bring the same concept to productivity software. The company is rolling out Agent Mode for Excel and Word, alongside a new Office Agent in Copilot chat, designed to make complex document and spreadsheet creation as easy as asking a question.
From Vibe Coding to Vibe Working
“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.”
Instead of providing short, one-off answers, Agent Mode is meant to generate full spreadsheets, reports, and presentations — the kind of work Chauhan says “a first-year consultant would do, delivered in minutes.”
How Agent Mode Works in Excel and Word
Agent Mode in Excel goes far beyond formulas and autofill. Using OpenAI’s GPT-5, it breaks down complex data tasks into step-by-step actions, which you can watch unfold in a sidebar, almost like an automated macro. Importantly, the sheets it produces are auditable and verifiable, reflecting Microsoft’s cautious approach to AI in business-critical data.
Microsoft says Agent Mode scored 57.2% accuracy on SpreadsheetBench, an industry benchmark for spreadsheet editing — higher than Shortcut.ai, ChatGPT with .xlsx support, and Anthropic’s Claude Files, though still below the 71.3% human accuracy baseline.
In Word, Agent Mode transforms writing into a conversational process. It can draft entire reports, pull in historical data, summarize trends, and highlight changes — all while suggesting refinements along the way. Chauhan calls this “vibe writing,” where creating a document feels more like a dialogue than a chore.
Office Agent in Copilot Chat
Outside the traditional Office apps, Microsoft is introducing Office Agent, a chatbot-driven assistant powered by Anthropic’s models. Within Copilot chat, users can now generate full PowerPoint decks and Word documents with a single prompt.
Unlike earlier AI tools that struggled with presentation design, Office Agent promises structured slides, live previews, and integrated web research. Microsoft is betting this will give Office a unique edge in an increasingly crowded field of AI productivity tools.
“Productivity is our DNA, we’re Office,” Chauhan said. “While others will try to replicate us, there is no substitute for the real thing.”
A New Mix of AI Models
Office Agent is also notable for its use of Anthropic’s models — another sign of Microsoft broadening beyond OpenAI. While GPT-5 remains at the core of Excel and Word integrations, Anthropic’s systems are now creating Word and PowerPoint documents inside Copilot chat, which runs 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,” Chauhan explained. “We are looking at the entire family of models, wherever cutting edge work happens.”
Availability
Agent Mode for Excel and Word launches today for Microsoft 365 Copilot customers and Microsoft 365 Personal/Family subscribers in the Frontier program. Initially, it’s available only in the web versions, with desktop support “coming soon.”
Office Agent in Copilot chat is also rolling out today to Frontier program subscribers in the US.
