Intro to the new Agent Mode in Excel

Microsoft Excel just got significantly smarter with the general availability of Agent Mode. With Agent Mode, Copilot adds an AI-powered chat feature to Excel that can build, analyze, and modify spreadsheets through natural language commands. Instead of just answering questions about your data, Agent Mode can create complete workbooks, build financial models, and generate complex reports from a simple prompt.

Here's what you need to know about Agent Mode, when to use it, when not to use it, and what alternatives, like the AI-powered no-code platform Glide, exist when you need to extend your data’s AI capabilities beyond a single Excel spreadsheet or collaborate more safely with your Excel data.

Read Microsoft's Agent Mode announcement post or watch the video for more info.

What Is Agent Mode?

Agent Mode is an AI capability within Microsoft 365 Copilot that works directly inside Excel. Unlike traditional Copilot features that respond to single requests, Agent Mode takes a more autonomous approach: it plans multi-step tasks, executes them, checks its work, and iterates until the results meet your request.

For example, instead of manually creating a budget tracker with input fields, formulas, charts, and conditional formatting, you can tell Agent Mode: "Create a budget tracker with planned vs. actual spending, calculate variances, apply conditional formatting, and add a donut chart showing category breakdown." Agent Mode will build the entire workbook for you.

The key difference is, Agent Mode doesn't just assist. It acts. It creates tables, writes formulas, builds PivotTables, generates charts, applies formatting, and even pulls external data from the web when needed. You can watch its reasoning in real time and steer it as it works.

A Brief History of Copilot’s Agent Mode

September 2025: Microsoft announced Agent Mode as part of "vibe working"—a new pattern of human-AI collaboration focused on iterative, side-by-side work in Office apps.

October-November 2025: Agent Mode launched in public preview for Excel on the web through Microsoft's Frontier early access program. Microsoft also added two major capabilities:

Web search integration for pulling external data into spreadsheets
Support for Anthropic's Claude models alongside OpenAI models

December 2025: Agent Mode became generally available for Excel on the web for users with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses or Microsoft 365 Premium subscriptions.

January 27, 2026: Agent Mode became generally available on Excel for Windows and Mac (today's announcement).

How to Use Agent Mode

Requirements:

Microsoft 365 Copilot license (commercial) OR Microsoft 365 Premium subscription OR Microsoft 365 Personal/Family subscription (using AI credits)
Excel for Web, Windows, or Mac
Currently not available in EU or UK

Steps:

Open Excel (web, Windows, or Mac version)
Open or create a workbook where you want Agent Mode to work
Open Copilot from the Home tab
Select Tools > Agent Mode from the Copilot menu
Choose your model (optional): You can select between OpenAI (GPT 5.2), Anthropic (Claude Opus 4.5), or Auto mode (Copilot chooses for you)
Enter your prompt using natural language
Watch Agent Mode work: You'll see its reasoning process in the Copilot pane as it plans, executes, and validates each step
Iterate and refine: Give additional instructions to modify the work ("Add a trends line chart," "Change variances to percentages," etc.)

Example prompts that work well:

"Create an annual financial report for a retail business with monthly revenue breakdown, expenses, profit margins, and year-over-year growth charts. Use dummy data."
"Build a loan calculator that shows monthly payments based on loan amount, interest rate, and term. Include an amortization schedule."
"Analyze this sales data. I need to understand important insights to help make business decisions. Make it visual."
"Create a household budget tracker with categories for rent, groceries, utilities, entertainment, transportation, and savings. Add spending visualizations."

Agent Mode analyzes your request, creates a step-by-step plan, executes that plan directly in your workbook, and validates the results. The entire process is visible. You can see what it's thinking and what it's doing.

What to use Agent Mode for

Agent Mode excels at complex, multi-step tasks that would normally require significant Excel expertise:

Workbook creation from scratch:

Financial models and forecasts
Budget trackers and expense reports
Data analysis dashboards
Loan calculators and amortization schedules
Inventory tracking systems
Project timelines and resource planners

Data transformation and analysis:

Reshaping messy data into structured tables
Merging data from multiple sheets
Creating summary reports with calculations and visualizations
Building PivotTables and pivot charts
Applying complex formulas across datasets

Visualization and reporting:

Generating charts and graphs from data
Creating formatted reports with multiple visual elements
Building interactive dashboards
Applying conditional formatting rules

External data integration:

Pulling current information from the web (GDP data, stock prices, statistics)
Creating tables with up-to-date external data
Source citations for transparency

Tasks requiring iteration:

Projects where you need to refine the output through conversation
Scenarios where you're not entirely sure what the final result should look like
Exploratory data analysis, where you want to try different approaches

Agent Mode excels at more complex and labor-intensive tasks. If you'd normally spend 30 minutes building something manually, Agent Mode can often do it in 2-3 minutes.

What Agent Mode is not good for

Despite its capabilities, Agent Mode has clear limitations you should understand:

Simple, one-step tasks:

Inserting a single chart or PivotTable (use Excel's built-in Recommended Charts or Recommended PivotTables instead—they're faster)
Basic formatting changes
Quick calculations

Conversational help:

Questions about how to do something in Excel
Explaining Excel concepts
General troubleshooting (Use regular Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat for these)

Working with shared or sensitive files:

This is a critical limitation. Agent Mode makes direct changes to your workbook in real-time. There's no preview mode where you review changes before they're applied. While you can see what it's doing and can stop it at any time, the modifications happen immediately in the file.

This creates issues when:

Multiple people collaborate on the same file. Agent Mode changes can conflict with others' work
Files contain sensitive data you don't want modified without careful review
Workbooks are templates or standardized formats that shouldn't be altered
Files require approval before changes (budgets, financial reports, compliance documents)
You're working on the only copy of important data without backups

Cross-file or cross-system work:

Agent Mode only works with the currently open workbook. It cannot:

Access data from other Excel files
Pull information from your emails
Connect to enterprise databases or business systems
Work with data from CRMs, ERPs, or other business applications
Sync information across multiple spreadsheets

If your workflow involves data from multiple sources or systems, Agent Mode won't be able to help.

Mobile-first scenarios:

While Agent Mode works in Excel on the web (which is accessible on mobile devices), it's not designed for mobile-first workflows where field teams need simplified interfaces optimized for phones and tablets.

Scenarios requiring approval workflows:

Agent Mode doesn't have built-in approval processes. If you need changes reviewed before they're finalized, you'll need to manage that separately.

When Agent Mode isn't the right AI tool, use Glide instead

For scenarios where Agent Mode's limitations create problems, Glide offers a different approach to using AI with Excel data. It is also one that addresses Agent Mode's key weaknesses. Glide is a no-code platform that can be used to turn an Excel spreadsheet into an app. You can use Glide AI to apply AI actions and automations to your Excel data in very distinct ways from Agent Mode’s workbook-based processes.

How to turn an Excel spreadsheet into an app

Learn how

When is Glide a helpful AI tool to use with Excel?

1. Safe AI for shared and sensitive files

Unlike Agent Mode, which makes direct changes to your workbook, Glide creates AI-powered applications on top of your Excel data without modifying the underlying spreadsheet unless you explicitly want it to.

How this helps:

Work on data outside of the original spreadsheet: Users interact with AI through the Glide app, preserving the original Excel file and its data.
Controlled access: You can give team members view-only access through the app while restricting who can modify the actual Excel file.
Audit trails: Track who made what changes and when.
Selective permissions: Different users can see different data. Customers see only their records. Managers see their department's data.

Example: A finance team needs to track expenses in Excel, but they don't want field employees making direct changes to the master spreadsheet. With Glide:

Employees submit expenses through a mobile app
AI extracts data from receipt photos
Changes are validated before being added to Excel
Finance team reviews and approves before Excel updates
No risk of accidental changes to formulas or formatting

2. AI that unites multiple Data Sources

Agent Mode only sees the currently open workbook. Glide AI can work with Excel data alongside information from dozens of other platforms:

Data sources Glide connects:

Google Sheets and Excel
QuickBooks (accounting data)
Salesforce (CRM data)
Airtable (databases)
SQL databases
REST APIs
Email (incoming emails can trigger AI workflows)
Webhooks from external systems

Example use case: A sales manager wants AI insights combining Excel sales data, QuickBooks revenue, and Salesforce pipeline information. Agent Mode can't do this as it's limited to the Excel file. Glide AI can:

Pull data from all three sources
Use AI to analyze trends across systems
Generate reports combining information from Excel, QuickBooks, and Salesforce
Update Excel based on changes in other systems

3. AI-powered workflows beyond a spreadsheet

While Agent Mode works inside Excel, Glide Workflows let you build sophisticated AI automations that trigger without anyone opening Excel:

Schedule-triggered AI:

Every Monday at 9am, AI analyzes Excel sales data and emails a summary to leadership
Daily inventory checks that use AI to flag low-stock items and auto-order from vendors
Monthly cleanup where AI categorizes and archives old Excel entries

Email-triggered AI:

Forward invoices via email → AI extracts vendor, amount, due date → adds to Excel
Email receipt photos → AI reads amounts and categories → logs expenses in Excel
Customer inquiries via email → AI parses details → creates Excel records

Webhook-triggered AI:

When Shopify processes an order → AI structures the data → adds to Excel order tracker
When Stripe receives payment → AI matches to invoice → updates Excel accounting
When contract is signed in DocuSign → AI extracts terms → logs in Excel

Example: An architecture firm receives vendor invoices via email. Instead of manually entering details into Excel:

They forward invoices to a dedicated Glide email address
AI extracts invoice number, vendor, amount, due date from the PDF
AI categorizes the expense (materials, labor, equipment)
Conditional logic routes high-value invoices to CFO for approval
Approved invoices automatically add to Excel accounts payable
Slack notification alerts accounting team

This entire process runs automatically. No one needs to open Excel or run Agent Mode.

4. Mobile-first AI interfaces

Agent Mode works directly within Excel, which isn't ideal for mobile field work. Glide builds mobile-friendly apps from Excel data with AI capabilities that are more optimized for smartphones and tablets:

Mobile AI features Glide can enable with your Excel sheets:

AI receipt scanning: Photograph receipts, AI extracts amounts and vendors, logs in Excel
Barcode scanning: Scan items, AI looks up details, updates Excel inventory
Voice-to-data: Speak notes in the field, AI transcribes and structures into Excel
Photo analysis: Take equipment photos, Glide’s AI inspection tool identifies issues and logs in Excel
Location tracking: GPS stamps entries, AI categorizes by location

Example: Construction crews track daily progress in Excel, but they're on job sites without laptops. With Glide:

Crew members use phones to photograph completed work
AI identifies task completion from photos
Voice notes about issues get transcribed by AI
GPS automatically tags which job site
All data flows back to Excel automatically
Project managers see updates in real-time without manual entry

When to select Glide AI vs. Excel Agent Mode

Choose Glide if you need:

AI that works with Excel AND other business systems (QuickBooks, Salesforce, databases)
Safe AI for shared files where direct changes create risks
Approval workflows before Excel modifications happen
Mobile-first interfaces for field teams
Automated AI workflows triggered by schedules, emails, or external events
Different permission levels (customers see only their data, employees see only their department)
AI that processes incoming emails or external system events

Choose Agent Mode if you need:

Quick creation of Excel workbooks from scratch
Complex analysis of data already in a single Excel file
AI assistance while actively working in Excel
Desktop Excel workflow (though Glide works with desktop Excel data via cloud sync)

Use Both:

Many organizations use Agent Mode for Excel-based analysis and modeling, while using Glide for operational workflows involving Excel data:

Agent Mode creates financial models and analysis workbooks
Glide handles data collection from field teams and syncs to Excel
Agent Mode analyzes the data Glide collected
Glide creates executive dashboards from the analysis

Getting started with Glide AI for Excel

Connect your Excel file to Glide (via OneDrive or upload as CSV)
Build a mobile app from your Excel data using Glide's no-code interface
Add AI capabilities:
- Receipt scanning for expense tracking
- Data extraction from emails
- Automated categorization and tagging
- Smart forms that validate data before adding to Excel
Set up workflows (schedule, email, or webhook triggers)
Deploy to your team via web link or mobile app

Glide offers a free tier to test these capabilities before committing financially.

Get the most out of AI for your Excel sheets

Agent Mode is a powerful addition to Excel that makes complex spreadsheet work more accessible. It's excellent for creating workbooks, analyzing data, and building reports, all through natural language conversation.

For scenarios where Agent Mode doesn’t work, tools like Glide complement it by providing AI capabilities that work safely with shared Excel files, connect to multiple data sources, and enable mobile-first workflows with sophisticated automation.

The key is matching the AI tool to your specific needs. When you need to perform complex Excel analysis in a single file, use Agent Mode. If you’re tackling operational workflows with Excel data involving multiple systems, mobile teams, or automated processes, use Glide. For businesses leaning into AI, both tools work well together.

As AI continues to evolve in Excel and related tools, understanding which tool fits which scenario will help you get the most value from AI while avoiding running into limitations. Knowing how to use both Agent Mode and Glide will boost your Excel proficiency at work. If you want to get started, Glide University has all the resources you need to build your first Excel application.