Microsoft unveils AI upgrades, rolls out Copilot Cowork to early-access customers

Microsoft on Monday unveiled new features in its Copilot research ​assistant that would allow users to utilise multiple AI models ‌simultaneously within the same workflow, the latest move by the ​tech giant to improve its AI offering ⁠and boost adoption.

In a new feature called “Critique”, Copilot’s Researcher agent will now be able to pull outputs from both OpenAI’s GPT and Anthropic’s ‌Claude models for every response, rather than relying on a single model.

While GPT generates the response, Claude ‌will review the output for accuracy and quality before presenting ‌it ⁠to the user, Microsoft said. The company ⁠expects to make that workflow bi-directional in the future, allowing GPT to review Claude’s drafts as well.

“Having various different models from different vendors in Copilot ​is highly attractive – but we’re ‌taking this to the next level, where customers actually get the benefits of the models working together,” Nicole Herskowitz, corporate vice president of Microsoft 365 and Copilot, said in ‌an interview with Reuters.

The multi-model approach will help ​speed up user workflow, keep in check AI hallucinations, where systems generate false information, and produce more ⁠reliable outputs, boosting productivity and quality for customers, Herskowitz added.

Microsoft is also launching ‘Council’, a feature that will allow users to ‌compare responses from different AI models side-by-side. The upgrades come as Microsoft makes its new Copilot Cowork agentic AI tool more widely available to members in its ‘Frontier’ program, which provides customers with early access to some of its latest AI features.

The company’s shares rose about 1% on Monday. Still, the ‌stock is on course for its worst quarter since the 2008 global ​financial crisis with a drop of nearly 25% as investor optimism on AI wanes.

Microsoft unveiled Copilot Cowork, ⁠a tool based on Anthropic’s viral Claude Cowork product, in ⁠testing mode earlier this month, capitalising on the growing demand for autonomous AI agents.

The Windows maker has been ‌racing to improve its Copilot assistant to drive better adoption amid intense competition from rivals including Google’s Gemini ​and autonomous agents such as Claude Cowork.