Microsoft looks beyond OpenAI, adds support for Anthropic's AI models in Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft has announced that it is bringing Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.2 models to Microsoft 365 Copilot alongside the OpenAI models. Meanwhile, Microsoft Copilot Studio and Researcher users will also have access to Anthropic's AI models.

​The Redmond based company says that the addition of Claude family of models is aimed at allowing customsers to access the best AI innovations from across the industry.

​Charles Lamanna, President, Business & Industry of Microsoft's Copilot team while explaining the new move in a blogpost said, “Copilot will continue to be powered by OpenAI’s latest models, and now our customers will have the flexibility to use Anthropic models too—starting in Researcher or when building agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio.”

​“The addition of Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 advances our commitment to bring the best AI innovation from across the industry to Microsoft 365 Copilot, tuned for work and tailored to your business needs.” he added

​Microsoft's Researcher agent will also be able to use Claude Opus 4.1 apart from OpenAI's reasoning models. Users can click on the ‘Try Claude’ icon on the Microsoft 365 Copilot app to access the Anthropic model.

​After opting-in to use Claude Opus 4.1, users will be able to easily switch between OpenAI and Anthropic models.

​Meanwhile, Microsoft will provide Copilot Studio uses the option to “even mix which models are used for specialized tasks from Anthropic, OpenAI, or any of the models in the Azure Model Catalog.”

​The new deal between Microsoft and Anthropic comes shortly after a report from The Verge revealed that the tech giant had started favouring Claue models GitHub Copilot paid users. Reportedly, the company has been telling its own developers to use Claude Sonnet 4 in recent moths.

​While Microsoft has been the primary backer of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, the company has been slowly trying to cut its reliance on the startup.

​Satya Nadella on Anthropic coming to Microsoft 365 Copilot:

​Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella while commenting about the announcement in a post on X (formerly Twitter) said, “Our multi-model approach goes beyond choice. It's all about bringing the best AI from across the industry to Copilot, tuned for work and tailored to every business.”

​Nadella also hinted that the choice of Anthropic models apart from OpenAI's could be available in more places soon.