Microsoft expands its AI offerings in Copilot, now including Anthropic’s Claude models, signalling a strategic shift to a multi-vendor AI ecosystem and reducing dependency on OpenAI.
Microsoft has announced a significant expansion of its AI model offerings within its Microsoft 365 Copilot platform by integrating Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 models. This move adds new selectable AI models for users in Copilot’s “Researcher” feature an...
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d within Microsoft Copilot Studio, where AI agents are built and fine-tuned. According to Charles Lamanna, president of Microsoft’s business and industry Copilot operations, from the rollout date, users opting in will be able to switch between OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s models, although OpenAI’s latest models will remain the default engine powering Copilot overall.
This integration marks an important shift in Microsoft’s AI strategy towards a multi-vendor approach, fostering greater flexibility and choice for users while managing the complexities of hosting and product strategy. Previously, Microsoft’s Copilot heavily relied on OpenAI’s models, but with the addition of Anthropic’s models—hosted primarily on Amazon Web Services (AWS), a direct cloud competitor to Microsoft Azure—the company is navigating a new cross-cloud dynamic. This strategy reflects Microsoft’s broader aim to diversify beyond a single supplier dependency, providing customers with more options while balancing factors such as output quality, latency, cost, and regulatory compliance.
The integration allows users and developers to leverage Anthropic’s newer Claude variants particularly in scenarios requiring advanced reasoning and automation. Copilot Studio users, who develop and test AI agents, gain the ability to configure and optimise agents using Anthropic models as alternatives to OpenAI’s offerings. These developments are initially available in early release environments globally, with a full preview rollout expected within weeks and production readiness anticipated by the end of the year.
Industry analysis indicates this move also addresses some of Microsoft’s internal concerns about overreliance on OpenAI, especially as OpenAI transitions toward a for-profit model and some users have cited that OpenAI’s GPT-4 can be costly and slower compared to other models. Microsoft is concurrently investing in its own AI infrastructure—including developing proprietary AI models and custom AI hardware clusters—which further highlights its commitment to a diversified AI ecosystem within its products.
This strategic diversification enables Microsoft to maintain leadership in enterprise AI by broadening its technological ecosystem and supporting customers who may have varying needs and preferences for AI model performance and cloud hosting. While the choice introduces potential challenges related to consistency and integration, it ultimately represents a substantial advancement in delivering flexible, powerful AI tools integrated directly into Microsoft 365 workflows.
Source: Noah Wire Services
