Microsoft Enhances M365 Copilot with New Agent Mode

Microsoft has introduced a new Agent Mode in Microsoft 365 Copilot, enabling users to collaborate with the AI assistant on multistep tasks in Excel and Word. This feature aims to provide more complex application functionality and improve content quality, as announced by the company on Monday.

Additionally, Microsoft unveiled a new Office Agent that allows users to create documents directly from the Copilot chat interface, utilizing Anthropic’s Claude AI model instead of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

In a blog post, Microsoft promoted these agentic features as 'vibe coding' for office productivity, allowing users to 'steer' Copilot during multistep tasks. Sumit Chauhan, corporate vice president for Microsoft’s Office Product Group, described it as 'the new pattern of work for human-agent collaboration.'

This announcement follows other M365 Copilot updates this month, including role-based AI assistants for sales, service, and finance, and several team-oriented AI agents for Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and Viva Engage.

Agent Mode makes advanced modeling in Excel 'approachable for most everyone,' according to Chauhan. Users can evaluate results, fix issues, and repeat processes until outcomes are verified, similar to handing off work to an Excel expert.

For instance, an Excel user can instruct the M365 Copilot agent to analyze sales data and provide visual insights. Agent Mode will determine the necessary formulas and create data visualizations, ultimately sharing a summary of results and validation steps.

Another example includes a loan calculator that calculates monthly payments based on user inputs and generates a payment schedule in a formatted table. Or a monthly financial analysis for a small business with a breakdown of product lines.

Microsoft asserts that Agent Mode enhances the reliability of M365 Copilot in Excel. In tests, Agent Mode scored 57.2% in Spreadsheet Bench accuracy results, compared to 71.3% for humans.

In Word, Agent Mode can draft content and suggest changes while seeking user input, making writing feel 'more like a dialogue than a task,' according to Chauhan, resulting in 'faster iteration, better ideas, and a more engaging writing experience.'

Agent Mode is available in Excel and Word for Microsoft 365 customers with M365 Copilot licenses through Microsoft’s Frontier early access program. It will later extend to PowerPoint. Agent Mode will also be available to consumers with Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscriptions.

The new Office Agent in Copilot, also announced today, enables users to create Word and PowerPoint documents directly from the Copilot Chat interface. Integration with Excel is 'coming soon,' according to Microsoft.

Once tasked, the agent will clarify the user's intent, conduct web-based research, and reveal its 'chain of thought' processing. The Office Agent will present a document preview before collaborating with the user on final amendments, Microsoft stated.

Office Agent is available today to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers via the Frontier program.