Microsoft shifts AI focus from OpenAI with Anthropic pivot

According to reports, Microsoft intends to begin incorporating Anthropic’s technology into its products. The decision to diversify its AI system represents the company’s desire to maximize output from a range of AI providers, rather than depend on a single partner.

Microsoft has begun incorporating technology from Anthropic into its flagship Office 365 applications, according to a report from The Information.

For several years, Microsoft has primarily relied on OpenAI’s models for its AI-driven features in applications such as Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint, but developers working on Office AI enhancements found that Anthropic’s latest models outperformed OpenAI in certain tasks. 

Microsoft has begun incorporating Anthropic’s technology in its products

The report specified that Anthropic’s models were said to handle complex financial functions in Excel more effectively and to produce more visually appealing PowerPoint presentations when given text-based instructions. This performance gap prompted Microsoft to begin blending Anthropic’s AI with OpenAI’s technology across Office tools.

Microsoft is also currently advancing its own AI research and development while using DeepSeek’s models to bolster its Azure cloud services.

According to the report, Microsoft will pay to access Anthropic’s models through Amazon Web Services (AWS) despite its competition with AWS in the cloud market.

Microsoft plans to publicly announce its decision in the coming weeks, but the pricing of Office AI tools will remain unchanged for customers, the report added.

Microsoft’s new partnerships

Microsoft has been OpenAI’s largest backer, investing more than $13B into the San Francisco-based startup. The partnership secured Microsoft an early lead in the AI race with the rollout of generative AI features in Office 365 and the integration of OpenAI’s models into Azure.

However, OpenAI is now facing stronger competition and its technology is failing to outperform them. The failure of GPT-5 to outperform Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 has driven Microsoft to acquire more partners for its AI systems. This multi-partner approach will help the company to meet the demand for AI features.

AI adoption has spread among businesses as they are increasingly using the technology to streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance productivity tools. Microsoft’s efforts towards the improvement of the functionality and quality of its Office AI suite could help make it a more attractive option than its competitors like Google Workspace, which is also rolling out advanced AI features.

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