Microsoft turns on OpenAI: Why internal sales memos now trash-talk former partners
microsoft is training sales staff to negatively compare openai and anthropic to its own models, claiming better performance and security. this signals a shift from partnership to direct competition as microsoft pushes its in-house ai to cut costs.
microsoft is reportedly training its sales force to compete aggressively against openai and anthropic by criticizing their models compared to microsofts in-house phi models. evp jacob andreou presented data claiming anthropics claude was slower and less accurate than copilot within office apps and lacked proper security integrations. this pivot comes after microsoft recently removed the exclusivity clause from its openai partnership and began replacing external models with proprietary ones in flagship products like word and excel. the shift aims to reassure investors concerned about microsofts massive ai spending by demonstrating the competitiveness and cost-efficiency of its own technology.