Anthropic’s Claude model range will now be available on Microsoft 365 Copilot, marking the tech giant’s latest shift away from exclusivity with OpenAI.
In an announcement on 24 September, the company said the move aims to offer customers greater flexibility in the AI models powering Copilot. This will see Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 models integrated within the Copilot service in addition to OpenAI’s.
Initially, these new options will be coming to the Researcher function through Microsoft’s Frontier Program, as well as Copilot Studio, which allows enterprise users to create and customize AI agents.
“With this launch, you can build, orchestrate, and manage agents powered by Anthropic models for deep reasoning, workflow automation, and flexible agentic tasks,” said Charles Lamanna Microsoft president for business & industry Copilot.
Customers hoping to capitalize on the changes won’t face too much hassle opting for Anthropic models, Lamanna noted.
“Once you opt-in, you’ll be able to switch between OpenAI and Anthropic models in Researcher with ease,” he explained. “In Copilot Studio, a drop-down menu lets you select from a range of model options—no more jumping between platforms to find the right tool.”
Microsoft and OpenAI are drifting apart
The move by Microsoft is the latest indication the tech giant is drifting away from its exclusive relationship with OpenAI. The company’s AI models have been woven across the breadth of Microsoft’s core product lines since early 2023.
Yet in recent months there have been signs the two companies are drifting apart, particularly in areas such as infrastructure. OpenAI, for example, has been forging closer ties with Oracle in recent months in a bid to drive compute capacity.
On the software front, it’s been the same case, with Microsoft making tentative early attempts to diversify model options for customers.
As ITPro reported at the beginning of 2025, Microsoft was exploring the prospect of integrating other third-party models within its applications. The company insisted at the time that OpenAI would “continue to be our partner on frontier models”.
Taking to social media in the wake of the Anthropic deal, CEO Satya Nadella said the move not only aims to expand choices for customers, but provide them with the best available options.
“Our multi-model approach goes beyond choice,” he said in a post on X. “It’s all about bringing the best AI from across the industry to Copilot, tuned for work and tailored to every business.”
Looking ahead, Lamanna teased that customers can expect deeper integration of Anthropic AI models across Copilot and other solutions suites.
“This is just the beginning—we’re committed to delivering model innovation at speed to empower every person with Microsoft 365 Copilot and transform every business process with agents,” he said.
“And stay tuned: Anthropic models will bring even more powerful experiences to Microsoft 365 Copilot.”
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