Microsoft Adds Anthropic AI to Copilot with 2 Powerful Models

Key Points

• Microsoft integrates Claude Opus 4.1 and Sonnet 4 into Copilot
•  Business users can now choose between OpenAI and Anthropic AI
•  Claude boosts research, coding, and content tasks in Copilot
•  Comes weeks after Anthropic AI joined Office 365 apps

Microsoft is pushing the boundaries of enterprise AI by integrating Anthropic AI into its Copilot assistant. Starting this week, Copilot users will have the option to choose from models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic, specifically, Claude Opus 4.1 and Claude Sonnet 4.

This is a major shift for Microsoft. Until recently, the company leaned heavily on its partnership with OpenAI to power its growing suite of AI tools across platforms like Copilot and Office 365. But that exclusive reliance is quickly fading.

🚨 Breaking: Microsoft parteners with Anthropic to add its Claude model to AI Copilot pic.twitter.com/hWa5rBLNzM

— The Rundown AI (@TheRundownAI) September 24, 2025

With Anthropic AI now joining the mix, Microsoft is embracing a multi-model AI approach, giving enterprise users more choices for solving complex problems and optimizing workflows.

It’s a sign of growing flexibility in Microsoft’s AI roadmap, prioritizing performance and specialization over loyalty to a single AI partner.

The announcement follows Microsoft’s earlier move to embed Anthropic AI models into Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, and Outlook.

This mirrors how other companies are expanding AI support across languages and applications, like Grammarly adding five new languages to its AI to meet user demand.

🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: Microsoft partners with OpenAI rival Anthropic on AI Copilot

it’s so fucking over for @sama pic.twitter.com/JOm9lwWFir

— NIK (@ns123abc) September 24, 2025

Now, with Claude embedded into Copilot, Microsoft is doubling down on Anthropic’s capabilities across its most widely-used business tools.

Claude Opus and Sonnet Bring More Power to Copilot

This integration brings two powerful Anthropic AI models into the hands of Copilot users, each designed for specific business needs:

• Claude Opus 4.1: Built for high-level reasoning, detailed analysis, and advanced coding. Ideal for deep research, AI agent development, and architecture-level planning in complex enterprise environments.

• Claude Sonnet 4: A more agile model, fine-tuned for speed and efficiency. It handles content generation, document summarization, and large-scale data tasks. Perfect for day-to-day business operations.

By enabling access to both, Microsoft allows users to match the right AI model to the right task. This flexibility is crucial as businesses increasingly rely on AI for a wider range of tasks, from strategic planning to automation and content creation.

Microsoft is adding Anthropic to M365 Copilot and Copilot Studio. This is a good message of optionality and choice. Microsoft has always said they would be multi-model even with their OpenAI relationship. I wonder if it could also power can’t GitHub Copilot.

Choice is good.… pic.twitter.com/3MccihlrUA

— Patrick Moorhead (@PatrickMoorhead) September 24, 2025

What makes this move even more significant is the growing reputation of Anthropic AI as a strong and safe alternative to OpenAI.

Founded by former OpenAI researchers, Anthropic is known for building models that prioritize interpretability, safety, and alignment, making them a reliable fit for enterprise use.

This shift echoes broader industry trends, like OpenAI’s recent $300 billion Oracle Cloud deal, which highlight how tech giants are scaling infrastructure to support AI across all sectors.

The Microsoft OpenAI breakup continues. Oooh, burn… 🙂 -> Microsoft embraces OpenAI rival Anthropic by bringing Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 to Microsoft 365 Copilot users

“Copilot will continue to be powered by OpenAI’s latest models, and now our customers will have… pic.twitter.com/rpDa5LF3Rn

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 24, 2025

In addition, Copilot’s new model-selection feature empowers businesses to customize their AI stack without switching platforms. Users can toggle between OpenAI’s models and Anthropic’s Claude depending on which suits their specific workflow best.

Microsoft’s AI Strategy: Choice, Safety, and Scalability

Microsoft’s growing alignment with Anthropic AI reflects a broader strategy, one of optionality, diversification, and enterprise readiness.

In the fast-moving AI space, organizations are demanding more than just powerful models, they want safe, scalable, and tailored AI tools that align with their unique needs.

Anthropic AI fits well into this framework. Its Claude models are widely recognized for being more cautious and less prone to hallucinations or unsafe outputs, an appealing factor for risk-sensitive industries like finance, healthcare, and law.

This isn’t just about adding new features to Copilot. It’s about giving users more autonomy over how they use AI, and who they trust to power it.

By allowing businesses to choose between OpenAI’s GPT-4 models and Anthropic AI’s Claude, Microsoft is making it clear: AI isn’t one-size-fits-all.

This integration also opens the door for new enterprise-grade AI agents that combine Microsoft’s infrastructure with Anthropic’s safety-first design principles.

Businesses can now build custom Copilot agents using Claude for specific internal needs, like legal research, financial modeling, or secure data processing.

Furthermore, Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 can take on a growing share of the everyday workload, from drafting reports to organizing customer feedback, freeing up human teams to focus on higher-value tasks.

We’re also seeing a similar AI expansion on the consumer front—like Xbox’s Copilot for Gamers, which brings AI-enhanced gameplay and personalized assistance to players. Microsoft is clearly betting big on Copilot across both enterprise and gaming ecosystems.

Elsewhere in the tech world, companies like Intel are still actively exploring AI-boosted capabilities. Intel’s Arc GPUs are still alive and evolving to support heavier AI and graphics workloads, showing that hardware innovation is keeping pace with the software revolution.

As the race to AI dominance continues, Microsoft’s embrace of Anthropic AI ensures it remains agile and competitive.

It signals that the future of AI at Microsoft is about interoperability, model diversity, and meeting customers where they are, with tools they can trust.

And let’s not forget the role of visual AI. With platforms like Google Veo transforming video creation, it’s clear we’re entering an era where AI isn’t just working behind the scenes, but shaping how we write, code, design, and communicate.