Microsoft taps Anthropic’s Claude to power Copilot Cowork autonomous AI agents in a blow to OpenAI

Microsoft is widening the circle of AI models inside its flagship productivity tools. The company said Monday that its Copilot service will begin using technology from Anthropic, bringing the startup’s Claude models into Microsoft’s enterprise software stack.

The move signals a shift inside one of the most closely watched partnerships in artificial intelligence. For years, Microsoft has relied heavily on OpenAI’s models to drive Copilot and its broader AI strategy. Bringing Anthropic into the mix shows that Microsoft is preparing for a future in which multiple AI systems work side by side within its products.

The first sign of that shift arrives in a new feature called Copilot Cowork, a tool designed to serve as an autonomous digital coworker within Microsoft’s productivity software.

Microsoft Integrates Anthropic’s AI Into Copilot Cowork to Power Next Wave of Autonomous Agents

The system draws on technology from Anthropic’s Claude Cowork, a product that has been gaining attention across Silicon Valley. The tool can handle tasks that typically require a sequence of manual steps, such as creating applications, generating spreadsheets, organizing large datasets, and coordinating workflows across documents.

In practical terms, Copilot Cowork behaves less like a chatbot and more like a digital assistant that carries out tasks on a user’s behalf.

Microsoft says enterprise trust will be central to its strategy as companies test AI agents inside core business workflows. Many organizations remain cautious about systems that operate with broad access to corporate data.

“We work only in a cloud environment and we work only on behalf of the user. So you know exactly what information it (Copilot Cowork) has access to,” Jared Spataro, who leads Microsoft’s AI-at-Work efforts, told Reuters.

The company is positioning its approach as the opposite of Anthropic’s original design for Claude Cowork.

Cloud Cowork only works locally on the device, and most companies feel “very uncomfortable” with that, he said. “We’re the opposite.”

The launch lands at a tense moment for the software industry. Anthropic’s recent release of agent-style tools sparked fresh debate across Wall Street about how AI agents might reshape traditional software businesses. Investors quickly reacted. Shares across several software firms slid, and Microsoft’s own stock dropped close to nine percent in February.

That reaction reflects a growing belief in the tech sector: if AI systems can handle complex work on their own, many existing software tools could lose their central role.

Microsoft’s latest move suggests the company wants a seat at the center of that shift rather than watching it unfold from the sidelines.

Copilot Cowork remains in testing and will roll out to early-access users later this month. Microsoft has not revealed the final pricing structure. Some usage will fall under the company’s $30-per-user-per-month Microsoft 365 Copilot plan, with additional capacity available for purchase.

At the same time, Microsoft confirmed that Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet models will become available to Microsoft 365 Copilot customers. Up to now, Copilot has relied on OpenAI’s GPT models to handle most AI tasks.

Adding Anthropic gives Microsoft another model family to work with as companies experiment with AI agents across their daily operations.

The decision arrives as investors question Microsoft’s deep financial and technical ties with OpenAI. The startup’s systems account for nearly 45% of Microsoft’s cloud business contract backlog, tying a large portion of Azure’s future growth to a single partner.

Bringing Anthropic into the fold gives Microsoft another path forward. It spreads risk across multiple AI suppliers and signals that the company intends to keep control of the broader platform that businesses depend on.

For enterprise customers, the message is simple: Microsoft wants Copilot to become the place where AI agents live, work, and coordinate across the software companies already use every day.