Microsoft CEO Nadella says Excel agent can simulate causal reasoning, now used to analyze SEC filings and ROIC

On the latest Sources Podcast, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared how he uses Cowork and the Excel agent in his daily work. He uses these tools to track U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings and analyze spreadsheets, and he especially values the Excel agent's ability to simulate causal reasoning. He also uses the software to continuously evaluate Microsoft's return on invested capital.

Nadella said Microsoft's AI systems have made two important advances. The first is the ability to deeply analyze existing models. He can use the Cowork platform to generate complex operational models such as supply chain optimization spreadsheets, and then keep reasoning around the results, creating what he calls an "Excel inner loop."

The second advance is combining the enterprise environment with the global environment. He deployed a "data runner" in Microsoft Fabric to pull all SEC data from cloud services into a semantic model, where a coding agent analyzes it and builds dashboards, allowing real-time views of ROIC at every level.