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Microsoft appears to be prepping its sales team to get more competitive with the other major players in the AI industry.<\/p>\n
At an internal meeting on Tuesday, the company\u2019s executives outlined a plan for salespeople to negatively compare AI products from companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic to its own, according to a new report<\/a> from Bloomberg. The meeting, billed as a strategy session for the new fiscal year, reportedly leaned heavily on pitching the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of Microsoft\u2019s in-house models against those of its rivals.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone else is selling parts \u2014 we\u2019re selling the full end-to-end system. That\u2019s the story that we all need to get out there and tell in FY27,\u201d Executive Vice President\u00a0Jay Parikh\u00a0reportedly told the room.<\/p>\n Executive Vice President\u00a0Jacob Andreou\u00a0reportedly went further, delivering a presentation comparing Copilot directly to Anthropic\u2019s chatbot Claude. According to Bloomberg, Andreou noted that, when it came to performance within Microsoft\u2019s office apps, Anthropic\u2019s model was \u201cslower and less accurate, and lacked the proper security integrations,\u201d Bloomberg writes.<\/p>\n TechCrunch has reached out to Microsoft and Anthropic for comment and will update this story if we hear from either outfit.<\/p>\n A company coaching its sales team on how to trash-talk competitors isn\u2019t particularly surprising. What\u2019s more notable is who Microsoft is now targeting \u2014 the same companies it has long depended on for the AI models powering its own products.<\/p>\n It\u2019s just the latest move in that direction. A report<\/a> earlier this month found that Microsoft has been swapping OpenAI and Anthropic\u2019s models out of flagship apps like Word and Excel in favor of its own \u2014 a cost-cutting move, according to that report.<\/p>\n There was a time when Microsoft and OpenAI were attached at the hip. The two companies entered into a very unique agreement years ago that saw Microsoft provide capital and compute to OpenAI while allowing Microsoft to enjoy exclusive access to OpenAI\u2019s API and models. The companies amended<\/a> the partnership in April, dropping the exclusivity clause and clearing OpenAI to sell to Microsoft\u2019s competitors. <\/p>\n That revised relationship may help explain the sales team\u2019s new pitch. Microsoft has been battling a less-than-optimal<\/a> stock outlook over the past year, as investors question the company\u2019s massive spending on the buildout of its AI business<\/a>. Talking up how competitive those products actually are is likely an attempt to calm those waters and build confidence in Microsoft\u2019s long-term AI plan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n