Microsoft Launches 'Vibe Working' in Excel and Word (theverge.com) 36
An anonymous reader shares a report: You've probably heard of vibe coding -- novices writing apps by creating a simple AI prompt -- but now Microsoft wants to introduce a similar thing for its Office apps. The software maker is launching a new Agent Mode in Excel and Word that can generate complex spreadsheets and documents with just a prompt. A new Office Agent in Copilot chat, powered by Anthropic models, is also launching today that can create PowerPoint presentations and Word documents from a "vibe working" chatbot.
[...] Agent Mode essentially takes a complex task and breaks it down with planning and reasoning that you can follow. It then uses OpenAI's GPT-5 model to break down each step of document creation into an agentic task and execute it. It's like watching an automated macro in real time, showing everything it's doing in the sidebar.
[...] Agent Mode essentially takes a complex task and breaks it down with planning and reasoning that you can follow. It then uses OpenAI's GPT-5 model to break down each step of document creation into an agentic task and execute it. It's like watching an automated macro in real time, showing everything it's doing in the sidebar.
Yes, that will go well (Score:3)
Maybe for people that are using Word and excel only to waste time.
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I have to admit I have never seen one. These do not seem to be a thing in Europe, at least where I work.
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I have to admit I have never seen one. These do not seem to be a thing in Europe, at least where I work.
Well between that and not having to watch commercials about medications, I envy you.
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Also, no spam-calls, political or otherwise. Currently that is a $50k fine, per call, as far as I remember and Telco providers have to block fast after complaints.
What about vibe testing...? (Score:1)
The "common people" are going to learn about the importance of testing the hard way...
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This won't end well. Imagine all of the bad apps with spaghetti code for every employee who leaves for whatever reason.
There'll be an AI to undo an AI, then figure out the data stores and make sense of those.
This is an entropy vortex looking for a spot marked X.
Let the mayhem start.
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Let's say that were true. How much AI blather would you tolerate unwinding, over what period of time? '
Your answer might be: Hey V64, please analyze this and rewrite in Foo.
More Foo.
And for $75/user/mo (Score:2)
They'll disable the feature.
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Finally a Microsoft service worth paying for.
Well, you have to keep real devs employed somehow (Score:3)
There'll be quite a market for people who can fix this crap.
Re: Well, you have to keep real devs employed some (Score:2)
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I think I'll just stick with Office2016 and Win10 Enterprise LTSC.
Now you can cook your data professionally... (Score:2)
AI agent allows you to cook your books in a way that will be hard to catch.
Whether you need to trick your superiors, business partners or shareholders - Microsoft Office has your covered...
falsifying financial records? - check!
manipulating the accounts? - check!
Now with agentic AI your books will be much harder to audit!
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Great marketing! (Score:2)
Now that Windows 11 has been one of the most effective tools for marketing Linux, Microsoft turns to helping to market LibreOffice. Well done, Redmond!
HAH! (Score:2)
nothing new, just faster (Score:2)
People will create garbage documents faster, but they already create garbage documents on the regular.
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Against Their Own Recommendation (Score:5, Insightful)
Wasn't it just a few weeks back Microsoft said don't use Copilot in Excel for any thing you may be legally responsible for?
If that's the case, why do business/enterprises seem so hot to adopt Copilot as their AI?
If I can't use Copilot to manipulate or whatever the data in an Office app, for which the output may be used/fed into some other Office document that M$ recommends I don't use AI for, then where is its real value and use case for Copilot?
Corporate training? Not if any of it is legally required.
PR communications? Not if you ever suspect it to show up in court.
Summarizing financial statements? Not if you have to provide that information to anyone who can read them without help from AI.
How much do I need to spend on AI for reminders and a to do list? I thought they figured that our with Outlook about 20 years ago.
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Because not everything everyone does is a legal dilemma. No one is proposing using ChatGPT to write procurement contracts either, that doesn't mean you can use it to draft an email to your project manager asking for a status update.
If I can't use Copilot to manipulate or whatever the data
Why are you manipulating data? ...
then where is its real value and use case for Copilot?
95% of the time spent in Excel is not about manipulating data, it's about presenting it and analysing the data. Microsoft never said don't use CoPilot to generate a pivot table for you, or not to use it to check formulas.
You're making a mistake i
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If I have to babysit the AI tool or put my own warnings on the output, that seems counterproductive. Furthermore, it can make you look incompetent.
"I didn't look too close at it, because I don't have time, so I used Copilot. The summary looks OK, but I can vouch for it 100%."
Not what anyone above you is going to accept as an answer for information you present them for decision making, legal responsibility or other.
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Edit: incorrect word/misspelling
but I can't vouch for it 100%
I don't get Agents (Score:2)
If they can't get the "generate correct output" thing working, why did they skip right to "OK, now let's automate our errors".
It seems every AI article is selling the "dream" and not the reality. It's stunning agents even exist. I have 0 confidence in any AI generated output.
what's the point (Score:2)
whats the point of automating making more documents? i already didn't read most of the garbage created by humans. If we amplify the garbage by 10, how is that helping produce anything useful? if anything, work requires less words, not more of them. the last thing we need is more useless time wasting documents.
Re:what's the point (Score:4, Insightful)
The formula is pretty simple. MS Word is the poster child. Word grew out of "desktop publishing" and typewriters, and contains various features and terminology from the archaic printing industry, fonts, kerning, tabs, indents, frames, etc. Joe in Accounting wants to write a memo, but ends up spending 40 minutes trying to get a tab in the right place or his indented list to line up properly. Since Susan ( also in Accounting) wants to read Joe's memo, she requires MS Word too. Long story short, Microsoft thru incompetence and luck has convinced layers of management that all people require industrial strength desktop publishing software to produce and read a memo. Now that everyone is deeply invested in the MS Office ecosystem, and cannot see that a memo does not require industrial strength software. It could have been written in plain text.
So shoving AI into all your software creates the illusion of productivity, and a dependency on the software. Everyone goes down the rabbithole together in the delusion that this is a great idea to use software not fit for your use case. Bam!
Dependency, just like cocaine!! Wuhoo, Who doesn't love Coke?
But it's gonna cost you.
And you're NEVER going to leave your dealer.
Addiction as a business model. It's really really effective at retaining customers, and your customers will literally pay any price for the next fix.
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Word grew out of "desktop publishing" and typewriters, and contains various features and terminology from the archaic printing industry, fonts, kerning, tabs, indents, frames, etc. Joe in Accounting wants to write a memo, but ends up spending 40 minutes trying to get a tab in the right place or his indented list to line up properly.
Oh, my. You're triggering my rage here. My problem with Word isn't just that it's overly complicated; it's that it's extremely opinionated. If I try to do something simple, like an ordered list: point 1, un-bulleted paragraph, point 2 -- often it just can't be done. Word doesn't allow that for some reason. It insists on doing what it thinks I want instead of what I'm explicitly trying to do. The margins don't line up, or I get point 1 followed by another point 1, or some other absolutely maddening nonsense
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Absolutely. Word and Office, but speaking of trigger points, PowerPoint, are so ridiculously bug riddled and pointlessly complex, it boggles the mind to understand why people use them in the first place.
I am embarrassed to say this out loud, but I've made a sub career out of helping lawyers format and re-format documents. It has been surprisingly lucrative, but really and truly such a misuse of my years of technology knowledge and experience, I'm practically ashamed. I
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Re: what's the point (Score:2)
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That's still the case? So, nothing changed since the mid-90s, then ;-)
Front row seats watching the... (Score:2)
decline and fall of the first western civilisation. I hope that I don't live to see the whol show.
Perhaps another will rise to take its place, but there will be many dark years between them.
Clippy! (Score:1)
I hope they bring back Clippy for this, part of the Bob 2.0 services :) /s
Vibe everyting (Score:3)
I really don't want to discover what vibe sex will look like.
Next up: Vibe reading module... (Score:2)