Microsoft has introduced a new “Agent Mode” in Excel and Word, as well as the Office Agent feature in Copilot chat for Microsoft 365 Copilot users and Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers. These tools allow the creation of complex spreadsheets, documents, and presentations based on simple chat queries, and are currently available in web versions through the Frontier app for users in the USA.
Agent Mode in Excel acts as an assistant that automatically analyzes data, creates formulas, builds visualizations, and generates summaries, explaining each step in the sidebar. Users can task the agent with conducting a deep data analysis, and the result will include not only charts but also key insights. According to Microsoft, the accuracy of Agent Mode in Excel is 57.2 percent based on internal benchmarks, which is higher than some third-party solutions but below the average human level.
In Word, Agent Mode transforms document work into a dialog process — Copilot suggests improvements, clarifies details, independently formats text, and summarizes information from various sources. For example, a user can request to create or update a report with data for a specific month, and Copilot will automatically add tables, summaries, and styling.
A separate Office Agent feature in Copilot chat, based on Anthropic models, enables the creation of PowerPoint presentations or Word documents through a simple chat. The agent independently searches for information online, structures the material, selects the design, and displays a preview of the slides during the work.
The new capabilities of Microsoft 365 Copilot expand access to complex Office functions for a wide range of users and help quickly perform multi-step tasks without in-depth knowledge of working with Excel, Word, or PowerPoint. Support for desktop versions is expected soon.
