Microsoft is broadening the AI foundation of Microsoft 365 Copilot by adding support for Anthropic’s Claude models , alongside the latest OpenAI models. This update gives customers more flexibility and choice in how they power their workflows, research, and custom agents inside Copilot.

What’s New

Starting today, Microsoft 365 Copilot users can access Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 , Anthropic’s latest reasoning models. These additions are now available in:

Researcher Agent

• The new Researcher agent—built for deep reasoning—can now be powered by either OpenAI models or Claude Opus 4.1 .

• Researcher helps teams tackle complex, multi-step projects such as go-to-market strategies, quarterly reports, or product trend analysis by reasoning over trusted third-party data, the web, and a user’s own content across emails, chats, meetings, and files.

Microsoft Copilot Studio

• Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 are available as model options when building and customizing enterprise-grade agents.

• Users can orchestrate workflows, automate tasks, and build multi-agent systems that mix models from OpenAI, Anthropic, or the Azure Model Catalog —all from a single interface.

• A simple drop-down menu now lets you switch between model options without leaving the platform.

Availability

• Claude in Researcher is rolling out today via the Frontier Program for Microsoft 365 Copilot-licensed customers who opt in.

• To try Claude in Copilot Studio, admins can enable access in the Microsoft 365 admin center .

• Note: Anthropic models are hosted outside Microsoft-managed environments and are subject to Anthropic’s Terms of Service.

Why It Matters

This expansion shows Microsoft’s commitment to bringing the best AI innovation from across the industry into Microsoft 365 Copilot. With Anthropic and OpenAI models working side by side, businesses gain more control over the intelligence that powers their workflows, enabling:

• Stronger reasoning capabilities

• Faster and more flexible agent development

• Tailored AI experiences optimized for enterprise needs

Microsoft says this is just the beginning, with more powerful AI experiences from Anthropic and other partners coming soon to Copilot.

?? Learn more about Microsoft 365 Copilot and explore Microsoft’s latest research on the future of work at WorkLab .

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