Turn Excel Into Your AI Teammate: How To Use Agent Mode In Excel For The Web

Monday, January 19, 2026

Turn Excel Into Your AI Teammate: How To Use Agent Mode In Excel For The Web

Turn Excel Into Your AI Teammate: How To Use Agent Mode In Excel For The Web

Agent Mode in Excel turns Copilot from a polite assistant into a hands-on builder that can reshape your workbook for you. If you work with reports, budgets, or messy data, this is the rare feature that can actually give you hours back each week.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor

January 19, 2026

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You know that feeling when a “quick” spreadsheet tweak quietly eats your entire afternoon?

One more column, one more formula, one more chart, and suddenly you are deep in a maze of references and formatting.

Here's a Cool Tip: Use Agent Mode in Excel for the Web

Instead of nudging Copilot one prompt at a time, you describe the outcome you want, and Agent Mode plans, builds, and revises a multi-step workflow inside your workbook.

It behaves less like a chatbot and more like a junior analyst who can explain what it is doing as it goes.

Feature Explanation

Agent Mode lives inside Copilot in Excel for the web. When you turn it on, Copilot gains the ability to:

Plan multi-step workflows based on a single request.

Manipulate your workbook directly by inserting tables, formulas, PivotTables, and charts.

Explain its reasoning so you can see how it interpreted your prompt and what steps it took.

You might ask: “Create a revenue forecast model with monthly projections, a summary dashboard, and a chart that highlights year-over-year growth.”

Agent Mode breaks that into steps, generates sample or grounded data, builds formulas, creates charts, and then shows you the logic behind each move.

This matters because it shifts Copilot from reactive to proactive.

Instead of you orchestrating every click, Agent Mode handles the structure while you focus on whether the result matches your business question.

For anyone who spends time in Excel but is not a full-time spreadsheet engineer, that is a big upgrade.

What You’ll Gain

Faster builds: Turn vague ideas into working models without hand-building every formula.

Cleaner structure: Let Agent Mode propose tables, PivotTables, and charts that follow best practices.

Better explanations: Use the reasoning view to understand how your data is being transformed.

More experimentation: Try “what if” scenarios without fearing you will break your original workbook.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Here's how to do it.

Excel For The Web

Go to Excel on the web, excel.cloud.microsoft/.
Sign in with a Microsoft 365 account that includes Copilot.
Open an existing workbook or create a new one.
In the ribbon, select Home > Copilot to open the Copilot pane on the right.
In the Copilot pane, open the Tools menu.
Select Agent Mode.
You should see an Agent Mode indicator and a prompt area that confirms you are in Agent Mode.
In the Agent Mode prompt box, describe what you want.
Examples:

“Build a loan calculator with monthly payment, interest, and remaining balance columns.”

“Create a sales dashboard with a PivotTable by region and a chart showing top 10 products.”

Press Enter and watch Agent Mode plan and execute steps.
If something looks off, refine your prompt:

“Use currency formatting in US dollars.”
“Limit the chart to the last 12 months.”

Use Excel’s undo if you want to roll back a change.
Once you like the result, save the workbook as usual.
Reopen Agent Mode later to extend the model, add new scenarios, or clean updated data.

fig. 1 - Use Agent Mode in Excel to Create Complex Worksheets

Excel For Windows And Mac

Agent Mode is not yet available on Excel for the desktop.

Pros And Cons

Pros

Multi-step automation: Great for building full models, not just single formulas, such as a full budget workbook with summary dashboards.
Direct workbook edits: No copy and paste from chat. Agent Mode writes formulas, creates tables, and inserts charts in place.
Transparent reasoning: Helpful for training newer analysts or documenting how a report was built.
Strong language support: Multiple languages are already supported, including English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, and Simplified Chinese.

Cons

License requirements: You need a qualifying Microsoft 365 Copilot or Microsoft 365 Premium subscription, with Personal and Family support listed as coming later.
Web-first rollout: If your organization prefers desktop Excel, you may need to shift some work to the browser.
Learning curve: You must learn to describe outcomes clearly, and some early prompts may produce structures you want to refine.
Governance questions: For sensitive data, admins may want to review how Agent Mode uses web grounding and future Work IQ features.

Feature Access

Platform: Agent Mode is generally available in Excel for the web.
Licenses: Available for commercial Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users and Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers.
Languages: English (US), Spanish (Spain and Mexico), Japanese, French (France and Canada), German, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, and Simplified Chinese, with more languages expected later.
If you do not see Agent Mode yet, treat it as currently rolling out.

Score

Criterion Score (0–10) Justification

Value 9
Delivers significant time savings for anyone who builds recurring reports or models in Excel.

Usability 8
Clear entry point in Copilot and good explanations, though prompt crafting still takes practice.

Wow Factor 9
Watching a full workbook structure appear from a single request feels transformative compared to traditional Excel work.

Total: 26/30 🌟 Excellent
Agent Mode in Excel for the web is one of the most impressive upgrades to everyday spreadsheet work since PivotTables, and it compares favorably to traditional macro-based automation because it is more transparent and easier to adjust.

Key Takeaways

Agent Mode turns Copilot into a workflow builder that can design, populate, and explain complex Excel models from a single request.

It is especially powerful for recurring business processes like monthly reporting, forecasting, and dashboards.

If you already have Copilot access, this is a feature worth piloting on a real project, not just a test file.

Cool Tip Snapshot

Feature Name: Agent Mode in Excel
Platform(s): Excel for the web, with desktop support coming to Windows and Mac.
Quick Benefit: Describe the outcome you want and let Copilot build multi-step workbook solutions for you.
Access Type: Subscription - requires eligible Microsoft 365 Copilot or Microsoft 365 Premium license.

Try It Yourself

Open Excel for the web, turn on Copilot, switch to Agent Mode, and give it a real task from your week, such as a monthly report or a planning model you have been dreading.

Then share how it went in the comments, subscribe to the One Cool Tip newsletter, and pass this article along to your team, family, and friends who live in spreadsheets.

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Rodger Mansfield, a seasoned technology expert and editor of OneCoolTip.com, transforms complex tech into practical advice for everyday users. His Cool Tips empower readers to stay productive, secure, and one step ahead in the digital world.

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Monday, January 19, 2026

Turn Excel Into Your AI Teammate: How To Use Agent Mode In Excel For The Web

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