Microsoft has announced a major update to its AI capabilities within Microsoft 365 Copilot, allowing organizations and users to choose between OpenAI’s models and Anthropic’s Claude models.
Previously Microsoft 365 Copilot relied exclusively on OpenAI models. With this change it seeks to give customers more flexibility and more control over how AI assistants operate within their business processes.
One of the first areas to benefit from this shift is the Researcher agent. Researcher is a Copilot feature aimed at helping users carry out in-depth work like market analysis, report building, or exploring strategies by combining internal documents with external sources. Users will now be able to choose whether Researcher is powered by OpenAI or by Claude Opus 4.1.
In addition, Microsoft is enabling support for Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 in its Copilot Studio environment. With the update, a drop-down menu in Copilot Studio lets users mix and match models (OpenAI, Anthropic, or Azure Model Catalog models) depending on which is best suited for a task.
To begin using the new model options, customers must opt in. Anthropic models in Researcher will roll out via Microsoft’s Frontier Program to licensed Copilot users who enable the feature. Administrators can turn on access to Claude models through the Microsoft 365 admin console.
By expanding model options, Microsoft is betting that enterprise customers will appreciate the ability to tailor AI behavior to their specific workloads. Some tasks may benefit from OpenAI’s strengths, while others might respond better to characteristics unique to Claude models. This approach allows customers to experiment and optimize.
Overall this change marks a turning point for Microsoft’s AI ecosystem. Instead of enforcing a single underlying model, Microsoft is offering choice to its customers. That flexibility may be a differentiator as businesses increasingly demand control, explainability, and adaptability in their AI tools.
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