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Microsoft reportedly tells salespeople to pitch against OpenAI and Anthropic
16 Jul 2026

Microsoft is reportedly preparing its sales team to take on other major players in the artificial intelligence (AI) space.

According to a Bloomberg report, during an internal meeting on Tuesday, company executives laid out a strategy for their salespeople to negatively compare AI products from firms like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic with Microsoft's own offerings.

The meeting focused heavily on promoting the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of Microsoft's in-house models over those of its competitors.

'Everyone else is selling parts, we're selling full end-to-end system'
Competitive edge

During the meeting, Executive Vice President Jay Parikh emphasized Microsoft's unique selling proposition by saying, "Everyone else is selling parts, we're selling the full end-to-end system."

He further stressed that this is the narrative they need to push in FY27.

Another executive, Jacob Andreou, went a step further by directly comparing Copilot with Anthropic's chatbot Claude during his presentation at the same event.

Andreou directly compared Copilot with Anthropic's chatbot Claude
Performance analysis

In his presentation, Andreou claimed that Anthropic's model was "slower and less accurate, and lacked the proper security integrations" when used within Microsoft's office apps.

This direct comparison with Copilot underscores Microsoft's aggressive sales strategy to highlight the superiority of its own products over those from competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Microsoft replacing AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic
Strategic transition

Earlier this month, a report revealed that Microsoft has been replacing the AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic with its own in flagship apps like Word and Excel.

The move is seen as a cost-cutting strategy on the company's part.

Notably, Microsoft and OpenAI had a unique partnership for years where it provided capital and compute to OpenAI in exchange for exclusive access to its API and models.

Microsoft and OpenAI revised partnership in April
Strategic shift

In April, Microsoft and OpenAI revised their partnership by removing the exclusivity clause, allowing OpenAI to sell its models to Microsoft's competitors.

This change in relationship could explain the new sales strategy from Microsoft.

The company has been facing a less-than-favorable stock outlook over the past year as investors have been skeptical about its heavy spending on AI development.