Microsoft has announced that business users can now pick between OpenAI and Anthropic models inside its Copilot AI assistant. The company mentioned that the development began on Wednesday, and it is the first time Microsoft is giving customers direct access to Anthropic’s models in its workplace AI system.
Before now, Copilot was entirely run on OpenAI tech like GPT-4. Now, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio will also include Claude from Anthropic. Microsoft confirmed the update in a blog post, with the company saying users can now use Claude Opus 4.1 for tasks that need deeper reasoning, like the Researcher tool in Copilot. Copilot Studio will also support Claude Sonnet 4, which is faster and lighter. “This move advances our commitment to bring the best AI innovation from across the industry to Microsoft 365 Copilot,” said Charles Lamanna, head of business and industry Copilot.
Microsoft set to build its systems amid Anthropic integration
Anthropic is one of the top competitors to OpenAI. It was founded by ex-OpenAI employees. The company has its own AI systems trained to handle complicated tasks. Microsoft has also been working on its own AI models. But for now, it’s giving customers options. They can pick between OpenAI and Anthropic, depending on what works better for them.
Since ChatGPT launched almost three years ago, there’s been a flood of AI tools. Every big tech company wants to be the place where people run their models. Microsoft, Amazon, Google — they’ve all started letting customers mix and match models from different providers. This move to include Anthropic in Copilot shows Microsoft is still trying to lead that race.
Microsoft has a long-term deal with OpenAI. It put in a huge investment and gave OpenAI access to its cloud power. In return, Microsoft was allowed to use OpenAI’s models in its products. That’s why Copilot tools today — the coding assistant, the workplace chatbot, even the personal assistant — all run on OpenAI. But that setup is now changing.
The new Claude models are built to solve hard problems, not just answer simple questions. Claude Opus is the flagship. Claude Sonnet is smaller but faster. Users in Copilot Studio — where businesses make custom AI bots — will have access to both. Microsoft didn’t say whether Anthropic got any investment as part of the deal. It also didn’t say what happens next in its relationship with OpenAI. But it’s clearly keeping its options open. More tools, more models, more control for users — that’s the pitch.
