Microsoft is reportedly training salespeople to talk down OpenAI and Anthropic
Microsoft appears to be prepping its sales team to get more competitive with the other major players in the AI industry. At an internal meeting on...
Key points
- Microsoft appears to be prepping its sales team to get more competitive with the other major players in the AI industry.
- At an internal meeting on Tuesday, the company’s 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 from Bloomberg.
- A report earlier this month found that Microsoft has been swapping OpenAI and Anthropic’s models out of flagship apps like Word and Excel in favor of its own — a cost-cutting move, according to that report.
- There was a time when Microsoft and OpenAI were attached at the hip.
What happened
Microsoft appears to be prepping its sales team to get more competitive with the other major players in the AI industry. At an internal meeting on Tuesday, the company’s 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 from Bloomberg. A report earlier this month found that Microsoft has been swapping OpenAI and Anthropic’s models out of flagship apps like Word and Excel in favor of its own — a cost-cutting move, according to that report. 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’s API and models. The companies amended the partnership in April, dropping the exclusivity clause and clearing OpenAI to sell to Microsoft’s competitors.