Microsoft appears to be preparing its sales team to better compete with other big players in the AI industry.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, company executives outlined plans during an internal meeting Tuesday for salespeople to negatively compare AI products from companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic to their own. The meeting, billed as a strategy session for the new fiscal year, was reportedly focused on touting the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of Microsoft’s internal model compared to that of its competitors.
“Everyone else sells parts, but we sell complete end-to-end systems, and that’s the story we all have to go out there and tell in FY27,” Executive Vice President Jay Parikh reportedly said at the event.
Executive Vice President Jacob Andreou reportedly went further and presented a direct comparison between Copilot and Anthropic’s chatbot Claude. When it came to performance within Microsoft’s Office apps, Andreou said Anthropic’s model was “slow, less accurate, and lacked proper security integration,” Bloomberg wrote.
TechCrunch has reached out to Microsoft and Anthropic for comment and will update this article if we hear back from either organization.
It’s no surprise that companies coach their sales teams on how to badmouth their competitors. What’s even more interesting is who Microsoft is currently targeting. It’s the same company it has relied on for years for the AI models that power its products.
It’s just the latest move in that direction. A report earlier this month found that Microsoft is switching from flagship apps like Word and Excel to its own models from OpenAI and Anthropic as part of its cost-cutting efforts.
There was a time when Microsoft and OpenAI were tied together. The two companies signed a very unique agreement several years ago in which Microsoft would provide funding and computing to OpenAI, while Microsoft would enjoy exclusive access to OpenAI’s APIs and models. The companies amended their partnership in April, removing the exclusivity clause and allowing OpenAI to sell to Microsoft’s competitors.
This revised relationship may help explain the sales team’s new proposition. Microsoft has been battling a less-than-optimal stock outlook over the past year as investors question the company’s massive spending to build out its AI business. Talking about how competitive these products actually are is likely an attempt to calm the waters and build confidence in Microsoft’s long-term AI plans.
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