EP 569: ChatGPT’s upcoming Agent Mode release: Microsoft competitor?

Topics Covered in This Episode:

1. ChatGPT Agent Mode Official Release Rumors
2. ChatGPT vs Microsoft Office Competition
3. Potential Excel and PowerPoint Integration
4. Deep Research and Agent Mode Features
5. OpenAI Operator and Browser Updates
6. Impact on Microsoft Office Business Model
7. Workflow Automation and App Connectors
8. Productivity Tool Advancements for Knowledge Workers

Keywords:

ChatGPT agent, OpenAI, agent mode, Microsoft Office competitor, Excel automation, PowerPoint automation, generative AI tools, spreadsheet AI, presentation AI, Operator, OpenAI browser, Canvas mode, Advanced Data Analysis, Microsoft Copilot, document management AI, workflow automation, browser automation, app connectors, deep research, computer using agent, data analysis AI, GPT-4o image generation, file syncing, Google Drive integration, dynamic sync, report generation, database analysis, visual creation AI, automation power, productivity tool, knowledge workers, workflow orchestration, chat-based document editing, comprehensive reports, slide generation, formula automation, business productivity AI, AI-powered presentations, AI-powered spreadsheets, AI advancements, IP sharing, OpenAI-Microsoft relationship, slide transitions AI, corporate data analysis, public data synthesis, Mac user productivity, PowerPoint editing, Excel editing, real-time updates AI, web sources integration.

Podcast Transcript

Jordan Wilson [00:00:17]:
Is Open AI about to release a new agent that would directly compete with Microsoft Open Recent report that we shared in our newsletter recently detailed this and now we have an official announcement date from OpenAI in about four hours. So what could this new Chat GPT agent do and how might it change the way that we all work? Well, we're going to be answering hopefully some of those questions and a whole lot more today on Everyday AI. What's going on, y'? All? My name is Jordan Wilson and welcome to Everyday AI. This is your daily live stream podcast and free daily newsletter helping everyday people like you and me not just keep up with all these AI developments, but how we can leverage all of this information to grow our companies and our careers. If that's what you're trying to do, it starts here with this unedited, unscripted live stream and podcast, but it continues on in our newsletter. So go to your everyday AI.com Sign up for that free daily newsletter. And we're going to be keeping you up to date. Well, with this story in particular because, because actually, by the time you're listening to this podcast, if it's past like noon Central Standard time, the announcement's already out.

Jordan Wilson [00:01:32]:
So we're going to be sending out our newsletter probably right about 12:30pm Central Standard Time, if you want to know exactly what's happening. But let's get into what we actually know. And yeah, we're going to have all the other daily AI news in the newsletter. So let's talk about this new Chat GPT agent. Pretty big, at least some of the reporting. And what we're seeing some recent leaks that are just a couple hours old. Looks like this could be one of OpenAI's biggest releases to date. So during today's show, we're going to explain these rumors on OpenAI's release, which will drop in hours.

Jordan Wilson [00:02:14]:
We're going to investigate how it might impact Microsoft Offices line of business and we're going to talk about how this will impact your work and my work. All right? And here's why it matters. And again, there's kind of two different, I guess, rumor mills that are currently churning. So one is we're seeing that it's going to be a direct Microsoft Office competitor. And, and, well, why does this matter? And Chat GPT agent that can create spreadsheets. Well, I, I do think spreadsheets and presentations are two of the big kind of, kind of end deliverables that still haven't been fully cracked by generative AI tools, right? I I things like personalizing research and content creation, photo visuals. I think all of those things have, for whatever reason, spreadsheets are still kind of difficult to fully automate with AI, depending on what you're trying to do. And the same thing with presentations.

Jordan Wilson [00:03:16]:
I mean, there's some AI apps that are okay at it, but for the most part those are two deliverables that I think everyday business leaders like you and me still kind of struggle with, right? To at least get help with from AI. And then sometimes we're like, wait, I have to do this? Like it's, you know, 2019. And also the Agent mode, right? And this is kind of two potential different ways this could go rolled into one. But this is OpenAI's new agent mode. This could also somehow be rolled into updates to Operator or maybe even the new rumored OpenAI browser. So that could impact how we all work with ChatGPT and the web in general. So I think these are pretty sizable updates to talk about. And like we talked about, this is more than just, you know, rumors.

Jordan Wilson [00:04:07]:
Normally I wouldn't do a full live stream podcast just on Rumors. Probably done it once in like 600 episodes. But this is more than a rumor because OpenAI did confirm that they are announcing something. So our live stream audience sees this and this is kind of a tease. And this is where it's like, okay, like I could see this going either way because they teased a similar image or similar animation like this when they announced Operator. So essentially it was a cursor that moved on the screen and people are pointing out, oh, it made five stops along the way. It's GPT5 now. I don't think it is because this is a similar animation that they teased before they announced operator back in January 2025.

Jordan Wilson [00:04:56]:
So it just says I'm tuning into the live stream tomorrow at 10:00am Pacific Time. So, you know, that's noon Central standard time for anyone here in Chicago area or one if you're on the East Coast. So it does seem to be something that is agentic, maybe something that's an update to OpenAI's operator, which is their computer using Agent. And we've seen the recent reports OpenAI releasing a dedicated browser anytime soon. So it does kind of lend itself to, we might get something like that, or it's maybe just a new function or mode inside of Chat GBT that helps it create Certain types of files that you would normally use Microsoft Office for. All right, so we originally shared this. This was an article from the information that we shared about in our newsletter, talking about how OpenAI is prepping a chat GBT agent to challenge Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. And you might be wondering, number one, why, or like, oh, that's interesting, because if you follow AI closely, you know that Microsoft has a reported 49% stake in OpenAI.

Jordan Wilson [00:06:19]:
So why would OpenAI release a chat GPT agent that really does a lot of the work that someone might be paying for a Microsoft Office subscription, right? If, okay, Microsoft Word, you can, you know, create that type of content in Canvas mode, You know, not everything but the basics, right? And then you have Excel and PowerPoint. And if this new agent can really do excel and PowerPoint with a prompt including transitions and visuals and in images, it's like, okay, that seems to be almost a shot at Microsoft that has reportedly invested more than $14 billion into OpenAI for that reported 49% equity stake. And there's a lot of details that I don't want to get into in this podcast between the, the, the ever evolving relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft.

Jordan Wilson [00:07:20]:
Right.

Jordan Wilson [00:07:22]:
We heard, reportedly it was one of the reasons why that OpenAI's alleged acquisition of Windsurf fell through, because essentially that would have given Microsoft that IP.

Jordan Wilson [00:07:35]:
Right?

Jordan Wilson [00:07:35]:
Because anything that OpenAI acquires, any IP that they create, essentially Microsoft gets access to that through a certain date. There's a lot of fine print, but, you know, just for those keeping track of the score in the stands, that's the gist of it. So according to the information report, this new ChatGPT agent would reportedly give ChatGPT features that would allow users to create and edit Excel and PowerPoint files directly inside of ChatGPT. So moving beyond just the text based tables and slides. So ChatGPT actually does a pretty good job when you upload spreadsheets and it turns it into a table format instantly. I don't think a lot of people understand this. By using Advanced Data Analysis, you can actually highlight certain cells and chat with just those cells. Probably like when I, you know, I obviously teach tens of Thousands of people ChatGPT companies of all sizes, and that's always like one thing.

Jordan Wilson [00:08:33]:
People, you know, even Those that use ChatGPT all the time, they look at me and they're like, wait, what? Yeah, so it, it actually handles spreadsheets great and you can interact with those different cells really, really well inside chat gbt. It's not great at you know, running formulas, formatting certain cells, or even exporting, you know, in a certain Excel format. So that's one thing. But also PowerPoint, that would be great. And that's one thing. You know, we've had plenty of Microsoft guests on the show. They've been an advertiser before. But one common kind of program that I've heard that like hey, Microsoft Copilot, it just doesn't work well on blank has been PowerPoint.

Jordan Wilson [00:09:18]:
Right.

Jordan Wilson [00:09:19]:
It's, it's been a slower rollout and I think a lot of organizations have struggled to use this. And for whatever reason, like I said, it's almost like creating PowerPoints with AI is still kind of like this holy grail of like, hey, whatever company can do this, you know, they're going to take so much of the, you know, future user base in AI in general.

Jordan Wilson [00:09:42]:
Right.

Jordan Wilson [00:09:43]:
I actually think, if I'm being honest, like Google Gemini's Canvas mode is so freaking sweet. It's so good. If you could somehow like separate that out with or have it just instantly export as slides, like it would be so good.

Jordan Wilson [00:10:00]:
Right?

Jordan Wilson [00:10:01]:
You know, to have it create like a, a web page or an infographic, it is mind bogglingly Good, just FYI. But you know, here we go. ChatGPT is going to be releasing this. So that means that users could make changes, apply formulas, and possibly even add visuals with the new GPT4O image gen or even transition transitions with just prompts.

Jordan Wilson [00:10:27]:
Right.

Jordan Wilson [00:10:28]:
Pretty sweet. It could be much easier in theory to create a PowerPoint in chat GPT than it is to create it in PowerPoint, maybe even if you're using Microsoft Copilot. Okay, so again, this is according to the information. The update could also add buttons for generating and editing these files similar to the current Canvas mode inside of chat GBT, making document management a little bit more seamless. Also, OpenAI is reportedly working on an AI agent capable of pulling from public or corporate data, such as PDFs, databases or internal reports to automatically generate comprehensive documents in Excel or PowerPoint formats. All right, that's where we kind of get into this second lane of rumors. Like I said, we won't have to wait long, just a couple of hours. So this is from a waxy at testing catalog.

Jordan Wilson [00:11:29]:
So he just posted great follow on Twitter, by the way. He just posted some information that he saw. So he, you know, and whatever wizardry uh, that that he uses always gets access to things before that they're released. A couple people on, on Twitter have cracked that code, so he kind of Shared this and uh, let me just for our pod podcast audience, live stream audience. You can see it on the screen here. So he took a screenshot and wrote, wrote a little piece about this. That looks like the new Agent mode is what it's being referred to as inside Chat gbt. So it first asks you to select a connection type and then it looks like there's two different options that you can choose.

Jordan Wilson [00:12:13]:
One is a chat option which I assume creates a dynamic sync between your data and then whatever connection type that you sync it with. And it says sync in this case Google Drive files to Chat GPT for more relevant and up to date answers. And then the other option is to do a Deep research and Agent mode. So that's where it's like two separate things there. So deep research and Agent mode. And here's what this kind of combination of deep research and agent mode does. According to this screenshot from Testing Catalog, it says find, analyze and synthesize your drive files to create comprehensive reports. So again, we don't know if this agent mode and this Microsoft competitor agent are the exact same thing.

Jordan Wilson [00:13:04]:
Maybe they are. This could be two separate releases. Maybe we'll only get one of them in a couple of hours. Maybe they're the same thing and we're getting them both. We'll know very soon. But regardless, this is not one of those rumors that's going to be floating around and oh, a couple weeks later of no, it's been announced there is a live stream. And you know, I'm personally I'm pretty excited about it, right? So I obviously use Google Gemini, Chat GBT and Claude every single day. But I have been using Google Gemini a lot more recently just for that Canvas mode.

Jordan Wilson [00:13:42]:
Like I said. So so much of, of what I end up using AI for, I ultimately need some strong visuals, right? Whether it's a, a full blown PowerPoint or just just having great visuals for presentations. We do a lot of training and if I'm being honest, a lot of the times, especially between Google Gemini 2.5 Pro and OpenAI's O3, those two are just so good, right? And I think it'll be even closer. So generally I barely prefer OpenAI's O3 except when I'm using AI Studio. Then I like Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro because you can have it take more time and think, which gives, you know, there's a thinking budget slider which gives it better results. But Google is rolling out a new mode inside the front end of Google Gemini that allows you to that to happen regardless, right? I'm, I'm usually jumping between, you know, OpenAI and Google Gemini or sorry, chat GBT and Google Gemini, but I'm using Gemini more often than I had been previously just for its Canvas mode, which is really good because I end up using this information for presentations.

Jordan Wilson [00:14:56]:
Right?

Jordan Wilson [00:14:57]:
That's my usual end goal. But this could change that, right? If, if we get a full blown presentation builder inside of ChatGPT that has an agent mode and deep research, it's like, wow, okay, that would be a huge advancement and not just for, you know, hey, dorks like me, but I can't think of anyone that I've ever talked to in a professional setting, right, that has a knowledge work job that at some point hasn't put together, you know, a PowerPoint or a Canva deck or, you know, whatever. Like everyone, everyone puts together slides and presentations and everyone works with spreadsheets. And I feel in specifically in those two cases, the majority of those people I talk to, no one likes, you know, going through or. Okay, I won't say no one. The majority of people do not enjoy spending time diving into spreadsheets, right. You might get a little bit of joy when you finally figure out that formula, right? And hey, the calculation finally works and I'm no longer getting an error in that cell.

Jordan Wilson [00:16:09]:
Right?

Jordan Wilson [00:16:09]:
But for the most part, no one actually, very few people actually enjoy spending time, you know, creating, you know, formulas and, you know, laboring over, you know, very small details inside of a spreadsheet. And I'd say the same thing for making decks, right? Sure. At the end you might be like, all right, cool, this deck, I'm happy with it, right? But I don't know, when you're on page 12 and, you know, clicking 37 times to get the font and the bullet point right, we've all been there. It stinks, right? So I'm personally very excited for this update. Whichever one of the two avenues, it may eventually go down. So a little bit more information from the testing catalog report. So this said, OpenAI is reportedly developing agent mode for ChatGPT, which would let users automate browser tasks. So a little bit different than the kind of Microsoft Office, you know, agent competitor, right? So this one says OpenAI is reportedly developing agent mode for ChatGPT, which would let users automate browser tasks and manage workflows across web sources and connected apps.

Jordan Wilson [00:17:18]:
The new feature combines the automation power of OpenAI's operator. There we go with the operator with the deep information gathering abilities of deep research, allowing ChatGPT to pull, analyze and synthesize data from sources like Google Drive in a single step. So that one's interesting. So that might be what agent mode ultimately is. It's, it's this combination of operator, which is OpenAI's computer using agent, which is pretty good, right? I recently just did the show yesterday on Perplexity's comment, which I really, really like. That's their kind of AI native browser. And I think it's at least right now is blowing the water out of other, you know, computer using agents because it works completely differently. So this agent mode might ultimately be the kind of OpenAI browser or it might live in an OpenAI browser or it might be separate, right? The OpenAI browser might be down the road and this just might be a, an improved operator, right? An improved computer using Agent that can also go into this agent mode and, and switch between, you know, actually seeing and visualizing websites and clicking on certain things, but also doing its deep research mode where it's just kind of scanning the websites, so.

Jordan Wilson [00:18:38]:
But also taking in your Google Drive docs. So a little more from that report. So OpenAI aims to make ChatGPT a central hub for document management, data analysis and workflow orchestration, reducing the need for traditional Office software. Also, the company is layering in browser control, app connectors and workflow automation, signaling its intent to become a foundational productivity tool for businesses and knowledge workers. So there we go, we have that combination, right? Browser control, which is operator, app connectors, right? So that's connecting all of your data and workflow automation. So maybe that's more of this kind of Microsoft Office competitor, right? Being able to, you know, actually finish that workflow and create documents, right? Because people don't know. But you can create CSVs in ChatGPT, right? Whether it's copying and pasting. But you can also create, you know, PowerPoints, but it's just usually text based, right? And then you have to, you know, paste that into Chat GPT.

Jordan Wilson [00:19:55]:
So a lot to cover. But it comes down to what are we getting in a couple of hours. So we're either going to see an agent that can edit Microsoft presentations and spreadsheets, right? It's going to be able to create and edit Excel and PowerPoint. Or maybe we're getting an agent that's more in line with a browser based tool like Operator or maybe a browser or maybe both. We'll see. It's only hours away. But like I said, if you want us to cover this tomorrow, like I said, it's gonna, we're gonna be covering it all in today's newsletter. Just go ahead and comment Friday.

Jordan Wilson [00:20:46]:
Right. So I don't know if, if enough people want to see more coverage on this, or we could just, you know, cover it in today's newsletter. But if, if you want me to go into a deeper dive on this announcement on tomorrow's show, let me know. Otherwise, you know, probably bring, you know, a good interview or something like that for tomorrow's show. So let's do a quick recap.

Jordan Wilson [00:21:11]:
All right. So.

Jordan Wilson [00:21:15]:
The rumors are a little bit all over the place. This could be multiple releases, but I think this agent mode is actually probably going to be all in one. That's what I think. So how is this going to impact Microsoft's, Microsoft Office's line of business? I would say not as much as you might think.

Jordan Wilson [00:21:38]:
Right.

Jordan Wilson [00:21:40]:
I think that, okay, let me say this. I pay 20amonth for Microsoft Copilot. I also pay, I don't know how much. It is like $7 a month for Microsoft Office on my Mac.

Jordan Wilson [00:21:58]:
Right.

Jordan Wilson [00:21:58]:
I'm on a Mac for the most part. So would it affect that line of business? Probably.

Jordan Wilson [00:22:03]:
Right.

Jordan Wilson [00:22:03]:
For maybe people that pay for Microsoft Office on a Mac? I think that would have a pretty big impact on that line of business. For people who are, number one, heavy Chat GPT users and know how to use all the features. Because that's not everyone either.

Jordan Wilson [00:22:18]:
Right.

Jordan Wilson [00:22:18]:
There's so many people that don't even know a tenth of what you can do inside of Chat GPT. It's funny, people that call themselves experts. All right. I'm, oh, I'm a ChatGPT expert. And, you know, most people don't know 10% of what you could actually accomplish inside ChatGPT. So it might affect, you know, people such as myself who pay, you know, to have Microsoft Office on their Mac. I don't think it's going to tap into their core Windows base.

Jordan Wilson [00:22:45]:
Right.

Jordan Wilson [00:22:45]:
Because those organizations, you know, they're, they're, they're not paying for just, you know, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, their entire business operations run on Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365. So I don't think it's going to impact their core line of business. Would they lose some customers? Absolutely. I think what they're doing here is they're making a heavy play for kind of the, the Tech Mac crowd.

Jordan Wilson [00:23:13]:
Right.

Jordan Wilson [00:23:14]:
So that's one thing. And how will this impact your work? Well, how will it not impact your work? Let me say that, yes, we don't know all the details yet on this new agent mode. But you know, the combination of using something like an operator or computer using Agent with Deep Research, that's wild to me.

Jordan Wilson [00:23:41]:
Right?

Jordan Wilson [00:23:42]:
I love Deep Research. The problem is not the problem because the power in it is that it takes a very long time.

Jordan Wilson [00:23:51]:
Right?

Jordan Wilson [00:23:51]:
But you don't always have that fine tuned control, right? Luckily both Google, when it does its deep research and OpenAI, they kind of give you. So Google Deep Research puts together a plan first so you can see it and then you can click Edit plan or go ChatGPT's deep research. They ask you a couple of questions before you get started. So but then, you know, you might have to wait anywhere from five to 15 minutes. So I think with this agent mode, I think that we'll be able to do a lot more combining that with Deep Research Operator. To me, I don't see how I'm going to be working without whatever this new agent mode is.



Jordan Wilson [00:24:38]:
Whether it is just a, you know, an upgraded operator, computer using agent that's intertwined with Deep Research and, or if it's something that's creating and editing presentations and Excel files. I'm going to be using this all the time. And I'll tell you this, every big tech company copies each other. So even if you're like, oh, you know our organization, well, we're, we're a co pilot team. All right, well if this is a new piece of technology, guess what? Microsoft Copilot is very likely going to be rolling it out at some point, right? That's one of the, the benefits of their unique partnership with OpenAI is they get a certain level of access to OpenAI's models, their IP.


Jordan Wilson [00:25:28]:
And maybe you're a Google Gemini team or you know, your team's on anthropics, Claude, Even though I don't know any teams that are yet. Every other company, whatever we get in a couple of hours, they're going to be either just copy and copying and pasting, right? And it's not just them. I mean, the same thing with, with Meta Mistral, right? Whatever, you know, Perplexity, which, you know, hats off to perplexity for actually innovating over the last couple of months, but for the most part, whatever we get in a couple of hours from OpenAI, it's going to become the norm, right? They have the user base, so whatever they release, there's a good chance people are going to like it or they're going to make a couple updates and people are going to like it and then they're going to come to expect that. Okay, so this will impact your work greatly, right? Will it become the new way that we work? We'll find out soon and we'll definitely be covering this.


Jordan Wilson [00:26:28]:
I hope this is helpful, like I said. Yeah, if you want to. If we should do a deep dive after the announcement, let me know. Otherwise, we'll just do a quick recap in the newsletter. Hope this show was helpful, you know, and if so, please go to your everydayai.com, sign up for the free daily newsletter. Thanks for tuning in. Hope to see you back tomorrow and every day for more Everyday AI. Thanks, y'all.