What’s the story
Microsoft has announced the integration of Anthropic’s AI models into its Copilot assistant.
The move is part of a broader strategy to reduce reliance on its strong partnership with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
The new development comes just weeks after Microsoft signed a deal to integrate Anthropic’s AI into Office 365 apps like Word, Excel and Outlook.
Users can choose between OpenAI and Anthropic models
With the latest update, Microsoft 365 Copilot users will be able to choose between OpenAI’s deep reasoning models and Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.1 and Claude Sonnet 4.
The addition of these models is aimed at providing customers with access to the best AI innovations across the industry.
This flexibility is especially beneficial for business users who require assistance with complex research tasks or building custom AI tools and enterprise-grade agents.
Opus 4.1 and Sonnet 4 tailored for different tasks
The integration of Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 models into Microsoft 365 Copilot is a major step toward enhancing the assistant’s capabilities.
While Opus 4.1 is designed for complex reasoning, coding, and deep architecture planning, Sonnet 4 is more suited for routine development tasks, large-scale data processing, and content generation.
This dual model support will give users greater flexibility in their AI-powered tasks within the Microsoft ecosystem.
Microsoft Copilot Studio, Researcher get Claude integration
Microsoft Copilot Studio and Researcher users will also get access to Anthropic’s AI models. This means that the capabilities of these tools are being expanded with the inclusion of Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4.1.
Charles Lamanna, President of Business & Industry at Microsoft’s Copilot team, explained this move in a blog post by saying it “advances our commitment to bring the best AI innovation from across the industry.”