Microsoft to Use Anthropic’s AI Shifting From Complete Dependence on OpenAI

Key Highlights –

• According to sources, leaders at Microsoft have observed how Anthropic models outperform OpenAI especially at document related tasks.
• Microsoft will pay Anthropic to use its AI to ‘partly’ fuel Microsoft 365 apps.
• This moves highlights how the tech giant will stop its complete dependence on OpenAI.

Microsoft is set to integrate artificial intelligence models from Anthropic, a prominent AI startup, into its suite of Office 365 applications. This decision, as first reported by The Information, represents a significant shift from Microsoft’s long-standing, near-exclusive reliance on OpenAI to power its generative AI features. Last month, Microsoft also rolled out two of its own in-house AI models, namely the MAI-Voice-1, MAI-1-preview. Such moves indicate how the tech giant wants to mitigate risks associated with a single-source dependency in the AI landscape.

Microsoft’s Strategic Shift to Diversify AI Power From OpenAI

For years, Microsoft and OpenAI have been seen as a unified front, with Microsoft funnelling billions of dollars into the start-up and integrating its GPT models across its product ecosystem – be it Bing Search or Office apps. However, this year as new players emerge, Microsoft appears to be considering other alternatives to the ChatGPT owner.

While this collaboration with Anthropic will not replace OpenAI’s technology entirely but will see models from both companies working in tandem within Office 365. A Microsoft spokesperson, while confirming the long-term partnership with OpenAI remains strong, noted that OpenAI will continue to be their partner for “frontier models.”

Introduction of Claude in Office 365

Recently Anthropic also released a new feature update for Claude, which would let users create, edit or work on documents, spreadsheets, PDFs and more. Coincidentally, Microsoft development teams’ internal assessments also gave impressive output for Claude Sonnet 4.

According to sources cited by The Information, Microsoft leaders found that Anthropic’s latest model, Claude Sonnet 4, demonstrated superior performance in specific, “subtle but important ways.” In particular, the model was praised for its ability to automate financial functions in Excel with greater accuracy and to create more visually appealing presentations in PowerPoint.

A user on Reddit’s r/singularity community speculated that this play arrives with OpenAI’s own pursuit of independence, launching its own productivity suite as well as using Google’s hardware for some operations. This in-turn may have motivated Microsoft to secure its supply chain and reduce its vulnerability to a single partner’s evolving business goals.

Comment
byu/thatguyisme87 from discussion
insingularity

What Next to Look Out For

The announcement has sparked a flurry of discussion within the tech community. Some users expressed surprise that Microsoft is effectively paying a cloud rival, Amazon Web Services (AWS) which is also a major investor in Anthropic for accessing the models.

THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO https://t.co/a5gcIYGYS8 pic.twitter.com/xywulq4PPA

— NIK (@ns123abc) September 9, 2025

As one Reddit user pointed out, Microsoft could “effectively get at-cost” access to similar technology from its long-term partner, OpenAI, asking if ChatGPT is really that bad at Office 265 tasks.

Comment
byu/thatguyisme87 from discussion
insingularity

You may also like to read: OpenAI Releases GPT-5, Elon Musk Warns Microsoft CEO

However, as a long-term play, incorporating technology from a competitor, would help Microsoft ensure the quality as well as foster a healthy competitive environment for the AI players. A downside to this could be potential data privacy and security concerns, another Reddit user pointed out.

Comment
byu/thatguyisme87 from discussion
insingularity

Meanwhile, Anthropic has been making headway this year with Claude, recently launching a agentic browser extension called Claude for Chrome. This was quickly followed up by sharing the new Create Files feature (the one which Microsoft might be tapping onto), along with a Web Fetch tool to read websites and PDFs. However, given Anthropic’s idea of warning users against potential threats before hand, things might not create the best impression and reliability amongst users. Hopefully, these all are secured up as Microsoft and Anthropic come together to join hands for Office 365 collaboration.