Microsoft collaborates with Anthropic, a competitor of OpenAI: What is Copilot Cowork?

Microsoft has introduced Copilot Cowork, a new artificial intelligence feature developed in partnership with Anthropic. The tool is designed to automate workplace tasks and execute workflows inside the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Copilot Cowork goes beyond typical AI assistants that only answer questions or draft text. Instead, it can carry out tasks on behalf of users across Microsoft 365 apps such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft OneDrive. These applications are cloud-based, meaning they run online rather than needing separate installation on a device.

What Copilot Cowork can do

Copilot Cowork allows users to delegate work directly to AI. Instead of manually performing each task, users can simply describe the outcome they want. The system then creates a plan and executes it using information from emails, meetings, documents and messages across tools like Microsoft Outlook, Teams and Microsoft Excel.

The system runs on an intelligence layer called Work IQ, which analyzes activity signals across Microsoft 365 to understand a user’s workflow and context. This helps the AI decide how to perform tasks and connect with third-party AI agents.

Once a request is given, Copilot Cowork:

• Converts the request into a step-by-step execution plan

• Runs tasks automatically in the background

• Provides checkpoints where the user can approve, edit or pause actions

• Applies the final changes once the user confirms

How it works

For example, if a user asks the AI to prepare minutes and proposals for a client meeting, Copilot Cowork gathers relevant emails, files and meeting data. It then drafts the documents and asks for confirmation before sending or finalizing them.

To protect privacy, the tool operates within Microsoft 365’s built-in security and compliance systems.

Anthropic’s role

Anthropic’s AI assistant Claude, including Claude Sonnet models, powers the capabilities inside the Copilot ecosystem. Anthropic also offers a similar tool called Claude Cowork, which runs in a virtual machine environment on a desktop system.

Availability

Copilot Cowork is currently in research preview with a limited number of customers. It is expected to become more widely available through Microsoft’s Frontier programme in late March 2026. The Frontier programme allows selected users to test early AI features and agents in Microsoft 365.

Impact on OpenAI partnership

The partnership with Anthropic does not replace Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI and its AI tools like ChatGPT. Instead, Microsoft is adopting a multi-model approach, using different AI systems depending on the task.

Microsoft has invested heavily in Anthropic as well. In November 2025, the company committed up to $5 billion to the AI startup led by Dario Amodei. As part of the agreement, Anthropic also plans to purchase $30 billion worth of computing capacity from Microsoft’s cloud platform Microsoft Azure.

The move highlights how major tech companies are expanding AI partnerships as competition intensifies in the global artificial intelligence market.