Microsoft announcement introduces "Agent Mode" and "Office Agent" to Microsoft 365 Copilot, ushering in "vibe working"—an iterative, AI-orchestrated approach to productivity that mirrors AI's impact on coding. Powered by advanced reasoning models from OpenAI and Anthropic, these tools enable autonomous task handling in Excel, Word, and Copilot chat, with human oversight for refinement. Here's what stands out:

Core Features at a Glance

1. Agent Mode in Excel: AI "speaks Excel" natively, generating formulas, sheets, and visualizations for complex analyses. Standout: Achieves 57.2% accuracy on SpreadsheetBench tasks—outpacing rivals like Claude—democratizing expert modeling for budgets to P&Ls. Prompt example: "Run a full analysis on this sales dataset with visuals."
2. Agent Mode in Word: Transforms drafting into conversational "vibe writing," summarizing feedback, applying styles, and iterating via dialogue. Standout: Handles billions of monthly docs with clarifying questions and refinements, slashing iteration time.
3. Office Agent in Copilot Chat: Chat-first creation of polished PowerPoint decks and Word reports, including web research and quality checks. Standout: Chain-of-thought reasoning with live previews; e.g., "Summarize top 5 athleisure trends" yields share-ready files.

Prompt Starters to Jump In

Excel: Build loan calculators or financial reports with growth breakdowns.

Word: Update monthly reports or apply branding guidelines.

Office Agent: Draft business plans or employee retirement slide decks.

Rollout and Access

Available now in Microsoft's Frontier program for Copilot-licensed users and Personal/Family/Premium subscribers (U.S. English, web-first; desktop soon). Install via Excel Labs add-in for Excel. PowerPoint and Excel expansions incoming.

This agentic shift promises to elevate everyday workflows—watch for broader integrations. What's your first agent task?