Look, I know another Microsoft Office announcement sounds about as thrilling as watching Excel formulas multiply (which, frankly, is what this is partly about). But Microsoft just launched something called “vibe working” for Excel and Word, and I’m genuinely impressed by what they’re pulling off here. The company is rolling out Agent Mode in Excel and Word today – think of it as Copilot’s older, more capable sibling that actually knows what the hell it’s doing. Instead of those helpful-but-limited suggestions we’re used to, Agent Mode can generate complex spreadsheets and full documents from simple prompts. We’re talking “board-ready presentations” and work that Microsoft’s Sumit Chauhan says is “quite frankly, that a first-year consultant would do, delivered in minutes.” Here’s what’s wild about Agent Mode: it breaks down complex tasks into visible, step-by-step processes using OpenAI’s GPT-5 model. You can literally watch it work through problems in real time, like an automated macro that explains itself. For Excel (where data integrity actually matters), Microsoft has built in tight validation loops and claims a 57.2% accuracy rate on SpreadsheetBench – still behind human accuracy of 71.3%, but ahead of ChatGPT and Claude’s file-handling attempts. The Word version goes beyond the usual “make this sound better” rewrites. Agent Mode turns document creation into what Microsoft calls “vibe writing” – an interactive conversation where Copilot drafts content, suggests refinements, and clarifies what you need as you go. Think collaborative writing, but your writing partner has read the entire internet and never gets tired of your terrible first drafts. But here’s the really interesting move: Microsoft is also launching Office Agent in Copilot chat, powered by Anthropic models (not OpenAI). This thing can create full PowerPoint presentations and Word documents from chat prompts, complete with web research and live slide previews. It’s Microsoft’s answer to the flood of AI document tools trying to eat their lunch. The Anthropic integration is telling – Microsoft is hedging its OpenAI bets while exploring what different model families bring to the table. “We are committed to OpenAI, but we are starting to explore with the model family to understand the strength that different models bring,” Chauhan says. Smart move, considering Anthropic’s models are already powering GitHub Copilat and researcher tools. Agent Mode launches today for Microsoft 365 Copilot customers and Personal/Family subscribers (web versions first, desktop coming soon). Office Agent is U.S.-only for now. And yes, this means the office productivity wars just got a lot more interesting. Read more from Tom Warren at The Verge Want more than just the daily AI chaos roundup? I write deeper dives and hot takes on my Substack (because apparently I have Thoughts about where this is all heading): https://substack.com/@limitededitionjonathan