Microsoft is rolling out a new Agent Mode within Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint this week. Previously described by Microsoft as “vibe working”, agent mode is a more powerful version of the Copilot experience in Office that Microsoft is trying to sell to businesses.

“When we first shipped Copilot, the foundation models weren’t powerful enough to use Copilot to command applications,” Samit Chauhan admits.Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Office Product Group. “This meant that Copilot was a passive partner in the documentation: it could answer questions but missed the mark when it was asked to act directly on the canvas.”

The new Agent Mode is designed to better follow commands and edits in documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. “Over the past year, models have made meaningful leaps in instruction following, reasoning, and overall quality, and are now better at handling multi-step edits reliably without losing sight of your intent,” says Chauhan.

You’ll be able to see the Copilot AI agent in action in real time, thanks to a sidebar that shows every step Copilot is taking on a document. In Excel it can make changes directly to the workbook, add formulas or tables. Agent mode in PowerPoint can also update existing decks with fresh information and keep the template styles that businesses use.

Microsoft is offering these new Copilot features as a default experience for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers, and they’re also available with Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans.