Going Further: Claude Inside Copilot

The next step for small and micro businesses, without leaving Microsoft 365

In our last article, we covered the everyday Microsoft 365 features that make small tasks faster - dictation, quick research, drafting, and meeting notes. Once those habits feel comfortable, there is a natural next step: getting more out of Copilot itself, using a wider set of thinking styles for harder jobs.

Microsoft has recently added Claude, a set of AI models made by Anthropic, as an option inside Microsoft 365 Copilot. This is not a separate app to learn or a new subscription to manage - it shows up as an extra choice inside the Copilot tools you already use in Word, Excel, and Copilot Chat. This article explains what that means in plain terms, and how a small business might use it.

What Has Changed: Claude Joins the Copilot Lineup

Until recently, Copilot only ever answered using Microsoft's own AI models. Microsoft has now added Anthropic's Claude models as a second option, available directly inside the same Copilot experiences - no new website, login, or app required. Think of it less like installing new software, and more like being handed a second, equally capable person to ask, without leaving the room you are already in.

Where you will find it

•       Researcher, in Copilot Chat. This is the agent built for digging into a topic across several sources - your own documents plus the web - and pulling the answer together into a proper report. You can now pick Claude from a model dropdown before you ask your question.

•       Copilot Chat generally. For complex analysis, working through a long document, or producing carefully structured writing, Claude is available as a model choice alongside Microsoft's own models.

•       Excel. Microsoft has been rolling Claude into Excel's Agent Mode, so it can help build formulas, analyse data, and track down errors directly inside a spreadsheet.

None of this requires you to sign up anywhere new. If your business has a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence and your admin has switched this option on (more on that shortly), Claude simply appears as a choice where you are already working.

Why Have Two Models Instead of One?

Different AI models are, in effect, different ways of thinking through a problem - much like two capable colleagues who reach similar standards but approach things a little differently. Microsoft's own models remain the sensible everyday default for quick help. Claude has a particular reputation for careful, well-structured writing and for working methodically through long or complex documents, which is why Microsoft has plugged it into Researcher and into deeper analysis and document-heavy tasks first.

For a small business, the practical takeaway is simple: you do not need to understand the difference to benefit from it. Use whatever Copilot suggests by default for everyday tasks, and when you are tackling something that needs careful research or a long document worked through properly, try switching the model to Claude and see whether you prefer the result. There is no wrong choice - it is a bit like trying a different search engine and comparing what comes back.

Why a Genuine Business Subscription Matters for Safety

This feature depends on your business being properly set up, which is itself a helpful safety check. Access to Claude inside Copilot has to be switched on by whoever manages your Microsoft 365 subscription, in the Microsoft 365 admin centre, before anyone in the business can use it. A personal or unmanaged account will not have this option at all.

That approval step matters for a reason beyond ticking a box: it keeps this feature inside your organisation's existing Microsoft 365 environment, under the same protections, compliance settings, and admin oversight that already cover your email and documents. There is no separate vendor contract, no separate place your data goes, and no new company to trust from scratch - it works within the boundary your Microsoft 365 subscription already sets up. That is a meaningfully safer position than an individual pasting company information into a free, personal AI tool that has none of those protections.

In practical terms: this is one more good reason to make sure your business is running proper, licensed Microsoft 365 Copilot accounts rather than a mix of personal logins - the safety benefit is not an extra step, it comes built in once your subscription and admin settings are sorted.

Keeping Guardrails Simple

None of this needs a formal AI policy to use sensibly. A few habits cover most of what matters.

•       Check with whoever manages your Microsoft 365 subscription. Ask them to confirm Anthropic's models have been approved and switched on in the admin centre before you go looking for Claude in the model dropdown.

•       Review the output regardless of which model answered. Treat anything Copilot produces - whichever model is behind it - as a good first draft worth checking, not a finished answer, especially for anything with names, numbers, or figures that matter.

•       Use your business account, not a personal one. This is what keeps the safety benefits above in place. A personal Copilot or personal AI login does not carry the same protections.

•       Try it on something low-stakes first. A research summary or a spreadsheet clean-up is a better first test than something going straight to a client or into your accounts.

Weighed sensibly, this is a small, low-risk change - you are choosing between two capable options inside a system you already trust, rather than adopting something new and unfamiliar.

Where to Start This Week

As with the first article, pick one thing rather than trying everything at once:

1.    Ask whoever manages your Microsoft 365 subscription to confirm Claude is switched on for your business.

2.    Open Researcher in Copilot Chat, select Claude from the model dropdown, and try it on a question you would normally spend an afternoon looking into.

3.    Next time you are stuck on a spreadsheet formula or need to make sense of messy data, try Excel's Agent Mode and see how it compares with your usual approach.

4.    Run the same request through Microsoft's default model and through Claude once or twice, and see which style of answer suits how you work.

5.    Keep reviewing outputs the same way you would with any draft - the point of trying a second model is better results, not less checking.

The goal is the same as last time: small, low-stakes trials that show you where this genuinely helps in your particular business, all from inside the Microsoft 365 tools you are already paying for and already trust.