Microsoft has announced the integration of Anthropic's technology into its Copilot service to bolster its AI agent capabilities, enabling systems to carry out complex tasks autonomously. The group unveiled Copilot Cowork, a tool inspired by Claude Cowork, which can create applications, analyse data or generate spreadsheets with limited human oversight.

The company is banking on its cloud expertise and data security credentials to persuade businesses to adopt these AI agents. Unlike Anthropic's tool, which runs locally on the device, Copilot Cowork operates entirely within Microsoft's cloud environment, enabling organisations to better control access to data. The service is currently in testing and will be offered soon in early access.

Microsoft has also said that Anthropic's Claude Sonnet models will be available to M365 Copilot users, which until now had relied solely on OpenAI's GPT models. The move strengthens the partnership between Microsoft and Anthropic and allows the group to diversify its AI technologies, as some investors worry about its dependence on OpenAI, which represents nearly 45% of its cloud order book.