Forget vibe coding; "vibe working" is Microsoft's next big plan (www.makeuseof.com)

Microsoft announced “Agent Mode” rolling out across Microsoft 365 Copilot apps — a push toward what the company dubs “vibe working,” where reasoning-based AI agents orchestrate multi‑step tasks (from data pulls to document assembly) inside Excel, Word and PowerPoint. Users provide a prompt and iteratively steer Copilot as it constructs reports, builds calculators, or drafts executive summaries, with Office Agent also rolling out (US only). The feature leverages newer reasoning models to connect to recognized data sources and automate end‑to‑end Office workflows for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensees and Frontier Program Personal/Family subscribers. The significance is twofold: it promises dramatic productivity gains by turning high‑level intents into finished artifacts, but technical limits and risks remain. SpreadsheetBench measured Agent Mode in Excel at 57.2% accuracy (humans 71.3%, ChatGPT 46.6%), and security researchers have shown the agent can confidently fabricate data and sources. That means organizations should expect human‑in‑the‑loop verification, tighter data governance, and new compliance/security controls even as workflows become more agentic. Agent Mode is an important step toward more autonomous office AI, but its current error and hallucination profile means cautious rollout and oversight are essential.