The agentic world that Microsoft and others have envisioned for AI is now arriving in the company’s office apps, where prompts are replacing the need to build PowerPoint presentations from scratch, even with Anthropic’s Claude.
Microsoft is pushing several major changes for office workers. Part of those will be part of what Microsoft calls its “Frontier” program for enterprises, where the company will allow the “technology” behind Claude Cowork to power the suite: Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Agent 365. But those additional model options will also trickle down into the Microsoft 365/Office applications that ordinary consumers use, too.
What Microsoft seems to want us to do is to let it perform the assimilation functions that we used to do. “Replicate last week’s analysis in a new sheet using the latest numbers shared in [Sales Weekly Update.docx] and show top insights on how our business is performing. And help me turn it into something easy to share, with visualizations of customer churn trends and clearly highlight the areas of concern” is an example prompt that Microsoft shared Monday as part of its updates to Microsoft Excel.
At the same time, Microsoft also keeps pushing “co-creation” as part of PowerPoint, as it did today as well. It’s not using your data to do so. Instead, it’s pulling what Copilot (and, eventually, Claude) knows about the subject at large, and simply using that to create a PowerPoint. The implication is that, well, no one really cares about how a PowerPoint is formatted anyway, so why not hand off the task everyone hates to an AI that can perform the task automatically?
Of course, more and more of what Microsoft is doing simply boils a business down to data, and applies whatever context Copilot and Anthropic/Claude can apply to turn it into information, and from there apply even more context to transform it into an actionable analysis. Sure, it saves time, but what happens when the MBAs and AIs begin disagreeing?
Here’s what’s rolling out. Remember, Microsoft is pushing these as “agentic” tasks, though it’s not quite clear what “agents” are being deployed as part of this.
In Word, Microsoft is introducing AI that can perform major edits, such as restructuring sections or rewriting according to the company’s guidelines. It can also keep tasks aligned with your own work context.
In certain cases, however, the new agentic version of Word apparently can read your information and files in the background. A suggested prompt in this new Word world reads: “Create a project brief for [project title] using information from my meetings, files, and emails from the past [timeframe]. Include an Executive Summary at the top. Structure the document using Heading 1 and Heading 2 styles where appropriate. Include these sections: Current status, Key decisions and progress, Next steps, Unresolved issues or risks, Recommendations. Keep it factual and flag any missing inputs as questions at the end.“
Word is getting model choice (between OpenAI and Anthropic models) in April. The new agentic capabilities are generally available in Word for Windows and Mac for Microsoft 365 subscribers.
Microsoft has been trying to apply insights and analysis to Excel for years, dating back to improvements like PowerBI. Now, the upgrades to Excel are all about taking the raw data that’s already in the spreadsheet and applying it in new ways.
Microsoft has different ways of doing that. “Create a P&L forecast using the latest data in [Operating Model.xlsx], including revenue, cost of goods sold, and operating expenses,” was one prompt the company suggested. “Build out for 12 months starting January 2026 and design the model to show month-by-month growth, retention, and unit economics with adjustable assumptions.“
Microsoft also suggested that a private equity (?) or other firm could create its own custom valuation of a company by asking Copilot to pull in custom data from the Web. Like the new Word features, these are available for Windows, web, and Mac subscribers to Microsoft 365.
PowerPoint’s latest focus appears to be applying touches like your own company’s logos and design elements, but suggested prompts say otherwise: “Create an executive presentation on the major market pressures and trends shaping [industry],” Microsoft said. “Include a high‑level competitive analysis of leading players, outlining their relative strengths, weaknesses, and strategic focus areas, and conclude with implications for industry leaders.”
You’ll also be able to make editing changes. These will roll out to Windows and Mac subscribers to Office 365 in the coming months, but they’re available to web users right now.
Anthropic’s Claude model will be added to PowerPoint over time, with no set date. But there’s already a “Create with Copilot” option in PowerPoint right now.
Author: Mark Hachman
Source: PCWorld
Reviewed By: Editorial Team
