Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word Copilot Agent: Create Full Documents in Minutes

Chris Menard

27 Mar 2026 — 5 min read

Microsoft is making major updates to Copilot, and one of the most significant changes is how you create new documents in Word. There are now two distinct Copilot experiences: Edit with Copilot for modifying existing content, and the Word Agent in M365 Copilot chat for creating brand-new documents from scratch. Here is how both work and when to use each one.

Edit with Copilot: For Modifying Existing Documents

In the Word desktop app or Word for the web, click Copilot in the ribbon. This opens Edit with Copilot, which is the renamed version of what used to be called Agent Mode.

Microsoft Word with the Edit with Copilot prompt visible in the document — The Edit with Copilot prompt appears at the top of your Word document.

The key word here is edit. This is not the place to create new content from scratch. Use Edit with Copilot when you need to rewrite paragraphs, convert bullets into tables, adjust tone, or restructure existing text. If you click the settings icon, you can see the available modes including Edit with Copilot, Analyst, and Designer.

Edit with Copilot dropdown showing Edit with Copilot, Analyst, and Designer options — The Copilot panel in Word offers Edit with Copilot, Analyst, and Designer modes.

Word Agent in M365 Copilot Chat: For Creating New Documents

To create documents from scratch, open M365 Copilot chat. On the left side, under Agents, you will see Researcher, Analyst, and now Word. Click on Word to launch the Word Agent.

M365 Copilot chat showing Word Agent listed under Agents in the left sidebar — The Word Agent appears under Agents in the M365 Copilot chat sidebar.

When you click on Word, the interface changes. The Work and Web toggles disappear, and you get a prompt that says "Describe the document you want to create." You also get template suggestions like Project status update, Strategic planning document, and Technical documentation.

Word Agent page with Describe the document you want to create prompt and template suggestions — The Word Agent provides a clean prompt and template suggestions to get started.

Example: Creating an SOP for New Hires

To demonstrate the Word Agent, I typed a simple prompt: "Create an SOP for new hires." I could have been more descriptive — specifying the audience, department, or scope — but I kept it simple on purpose.

The Word Agent came back and asked two clarifying questions:

Who is this for? I replied that it was for new hires and HR managers.
What time period should it cover? The options were day one, first week, first thirty days, first sixty days, or ninety days. I chose ninety days.

Word Agent showing the SOP prompt, clarifying questions, and Reasoning complete status — The Word Agent asks clarifying questions before generating the document, then shows its reasoning progress.

After I answered those questions, the Word Agent began working. It went through its reasoning process and started generating sections. Copilot even displayed a message saying I could go do something else while it worked in the background — a nice touch for longer documents.

Word Agent showing all 10 sections generated successfully with completion status — The Word Agent generated all 10 sections and converted them into a Word document.

Reviewing the Generated Document

The finished document is a comprehensive New Hire Onboarding Standard Operating Procedure covering the first ninety days. It initially appears in a View Only mode with an Open in Word button in the top right. Click that to open it in Word for the web, and from there you can switch to the desktop app by clicking Editing and selecting Open in Desktop App.

Opening the Navigation Pane (View tab > Navigation Pane) reveals the full structure. The document includes:

Pre-Boarding: Preparing for Success Before Day One
First Day: Your Official Welcome and Orientation
First Week: Learning, Observing, and Building Connections
First 30 Days: Integration and Learning Phase
First 60 Days: Contribution and Engagement Phase
First 90 Days: Independence and Mastery Phase
Checklists for each phase
References with source links

Generated SOP document in Word with the Navigation Pane showing all sections from Pre-Boarding through References — The Navigation Pane shows the full structure of the generated 9-page SOP document.

Tables, Charts, and Checklists

The document is not just walls of text. The Word Agent included a Week 1 Daily Breakdown table with columns for Day, Key Activities, and Expected Outcomes. There are charts showing milestone completion tracking and time allocation for the first thirty days. And at the end, there are detailed checklists for pre-boarding, the first week, first thirty days, sixty days, and ninety days — covering everything from I-9 and W-4 forms to direct deposit setup.

Week 1 Daily Breakdown table in the generated document showing Day, Key Activities, and Expected Outcomes columns — The Word Agent generates structured tables like this Week 1 daily breakdown with activities and expected outcomes.

The total document came out to nine pages, well-organized with proper heading styles, and it took approximately ten to fifteen minutes to generate. Writing this from scratch would have taken days.

Quick Reference: Edit with Copilot vs. Word Agent

	Edit with Copilot	Word Agent
Where	Inside the Word app (ribbon)	M365 Copilot chat (left sidebar)
Purpose	Edit, rewrite, reformat existing content	Create new documents from scratch
Asks follow-up questions	No	Yes
Works in background	No	Yes
Output	Inline edits to current document	Complete new Word document