Excel's powerful Agent Mode is finally coming to Windows and Mac

Microsoft is bringing its most superior AI collaborator to the Excel desktop app. Beforehand solely accessible in Excel for the net, Agent Mode is now usually accessible on Home windows and Mac, permitting Copilot to construct advanced workbooks, repair formulation, and even allow you to select between fashions.

This replace brings us a significant shift in how we work together with spreadsheets. Whereas we have now seen a bunch of AI assistants integrated into Office apps over the previous couple of years, together with the COPILOT function in Excel, the introduction of Agent Mode to the desktop app represents a transfer away from easy chatbots towards autonomous brokers that may navigate the grid identical to you and I might. Not like the usual Copilot sidebar, which frequently acts like a high-end search engine, Agent Mode is an lively participant in our workflow. It rolls up its sleeves and performs the duties straight within the grid.

The excellence is significant: whereas the unique Copilot experience in Excel was largely conversational, asking you to substantiate each tiny step, Agent Mode is rather more centered on the result. You inform it the vacation spot, and the Agent maps out and drives the route, creating the mandatory infrastructure inside your file to get there. In different phrases, as an alternative of getting to determine the 5 or 6 distinct steps required to construct a posh dashboard or a multi-sheet tracker, you’ll be able to merely inform it your finish purpose. For instance, in case you ask it to “construct a debt compensation tracker with a visualization of curiosity saved,” the Agent creates the tables, populates the logic, generates the charts, and codecs your complete challenge, all whilst you watch it work in actual time.

This is easy methods to get began:

Open Excel in your desktop or in your browser.
Click on “Copilot” and choose “Agent Mode” within the Instruments menu.
Enter a immediate. Microsoft’s instance is, “Construct a mortgage calculator that computes month-to-month funds primarily based on person inputs for mortgage quantity, annual rate of interest, and time period in years. Generate a schedule exhibiting month, fee, principal, curiosity, and remaining stability. Current the ends in a transparent, formatted desk.”

One of the helpful elements of this launch is the introduction of the mannequin switcher. Microsoft acknowledges that completely different large language models (LLMs) have completely different personalities and strengths. Some fashions are constructed for inflexible math and pace, whereas others are higher at explaining advanced logical steps or dealing with inventive requests. For that reason, Agent Mode helps you to toggle between OpenAI (GPT-5.2), the powerhouse for structured duties, and Anthropic (Claude Opus 4.5), which is commonly most popular for duties that require extra human-like reasoning or detailed iterative planning. If one mannequin hits a wall, you’ll be able to merely swap brains and see if the opposite mannequin can resolve the puzzle.

The model selector in Agent Mode in the Excel desktop app.

So as to add to this, Microsoft has included web-grounded search, which permits the Agent to lookup real-time knowledge, equivalent to present alternate charges, inflation statistics, or inventory costs, and pull that info straight into your sheet with correct citations.

The Agent can be a professional at dealing with messy knowledge, like spreadsheets with lacking headers, inconsistent date codecs, and irregular spacing that often trigger AI to stumble. What’s extra, you probably have an enormous workbook with damaged hyperlinks or round references, it could possibly discover these errors and counsel repairs by way of devoted “fix-it” logic. Which means, general, the assistant performs two essential roles in your spreadsheet: creation and upkeep.

Associated

No, Microsoft Office didn’t just get renamed to Microsoft 365 Copilot

The Phrase shortcut in your taskbar will nonetheless be referred to as Phrase.

Agent Mode is accessible to these utilizing Excel on Home windows and Mac with a Microsoft 365 Copilot industrial license or a Private or Household subscription. Only a heads-up for these within the EU and UK: on account of native laws and knowledge privateness frameworks, this function is at present unavailable in your area. For everybody else, it is time to see in case your new AI assistant can lastly deal with that daunting spreadsheet you have been avoiding.

Supply: Microsoft Excel Blog