Nadella: I Interrogate Models, Use Excel Agent for ROIC

On Sep 27, 2026, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told the Sources Podcast that he uses the companys Excel agent to interrogate SEC filing data and produce real-time return on invested capital, by layer.

Nadella framed that workflow detail as part of a broader shift in how he and other executives use AI agents: he said he does not take model output at face value but instead manipulates, interrogates and reasons over it. On the podcast he described two recent advances in Microsofts systems: deeper analysis of existing models and the combination of enterprise context with global context.

Explaining the first advance, Nadella said the firm now has agents that can perform complex tasks on data rather than only returning a single output. "I just don't see a model output and take it, I want to manipulate it, I want to interrogate it, I want to reason over it. So now we have even the Excel inner loop as I call it, the Excel agent, that is also super capable," he said.

He gave a concrete example. After his data center team sent him a complicated spreadsheet, he said, "I opened it up and then I went to a cell and then I asked me Excel agent, take a look at that formula that the person has used in that cell and create five sheets for me with scenarios." Nadella described that reasoning ability as close to causal reasoning and said it helps add value to enterprise workflows.

Enterprise context and real-time ROIC

The second advance Nadella highlighted is what he called enterprise context combined with the worlds context. He described a "data runner in fabric" that brings all SEC data from cloud and Neo cloud providers and "puts it into a semantic model which is then analyzed by his coding agent. The agent transforms it into a dashboard which allows the Microsoft CEO to have the entirety of every SEC filing that goes out there, plus all of my internal analysis constantly coming together giving me real time ROIC by layer."

During the same appearance Nadella also praised Microsofts Xbox division for its handling of employee layoffs and business streamlining, and he framed the agents discussion around the question of whether the companies large AI infrastructure investments will deliver measurable business value.

The comments followed recent public remarks about agents from other industry figures. SpaceXAI and X owner Elon Musk said his Grok agent was growing 100 percent sequentially but that the firms operational experience lagged competitors such as Anthropic, while Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan described using agents to assist with research and homework.

Nadella made these remarks on the Sources Podcast on Sep 27, 2026.