MICROSOFT
Why your next report won’t need you
Microsoft is adding new AI features to Office that aim to take the hassle out of spreadsheets, reports, and presentations.
The update brings Agent Mode to Excel and Word, and a new Office Agent in Copilot chat, both powered by Anthropic’s AI models alongside OpenAI’s GPT-5.
Agent Mode can break down complicated jobs into clear steps, whether that’s building detailed spreadsheets in Excel or drafting reports in Word.
Instead of just short answers, it produces full documents or presentations in minutes.
Office Agent works through Copilot chat, letting people create Word documents or full PowerPoint decks with a single prompt.
It can also research online and show live slide previews, something most AI tools have struggled with until now.
In brief:
Excel and Word Agent Mode that turns complex work into step-by-step tasks.
Office Agent in Copilot chat creates documents and slide decks from prompts.
AI mix that uses both OpenAI and Anthropic models for better accuracy and reasoning.
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In testing, Agent Mode in Excel reached an accuracy of 57.2%, better than rival AI tools but still behind humans at 71.3%.
Microsoft says the focus has been on making outputs reliable, checkable, and easy to update.
Both Agent Mode and Office Agent are available today in Microsoft’s Frontier program for Copilot customers and 365 Personal/Family subscribers, starting on the web.
Imagine AI doing your monthly report before you even finish your coffee.