Microsoft reportedly tells sales to target OpenAI, Anthropic

Microsoft is reportedly sharpening its sales pitch against OpenAI and Anthropic, telling employees to frame the company’s AI lineup as a lower-cost, more complete alternative to buying models and tools separately.

According to Bloomberg, Microsoft sales staff are being trained to emphasize the efficiency and cost benefits of the company’s broader AI stack, which spans models, cloud infrastructure, applications, security, compute, and workflow tools. The argument is that Microsoft can bundle the full system, rather than offering only individual components.

“Everyone else is selling parts – we’re selling the full end-to-end system.”

Parikh reportedly told workers that this is “the story” Microsoft needs to push in FY27.

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The internal messaging also appears to target specific rivals. Copilot EVP Jacob Andreou reportedly compared Microsoft’s assistant with Claude, saying Anthropic’s model is slower, less accurate, and lacks some security integrations.

The push reflects a broader shift in Microsoft’s AI strategy. After leaning heavily on its multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI, the company has increasingly been promoting its own internal models across apps and workflows, in some cases replacing models from OpenAI and Anthropic.

Satya Nadella reportedly pointed to Unilever as an example, saying the company switched from an unnamed frontier model to one of Microsoft’s cheaper models and made significant savings.

The timing lines up with Microsoft’s fast-growing AI business. In April, the company said that segment was worth around $37 billion annually, up 123% year over year.