Introduction
Welcome to another episode of TJ's Technology Tuesday — or Digital for Productivity, which is exactly what this is all about. After the last two interview episodes with Andreas Buhr and Cordell Nussbaum, here is another solo episode, this time once again on the topic of Microsoft 365 and AI. As you know, Microsoft 365 combined with artificial intelligence is one of my main areas of focus — often in combination with the iPad. So, what is new?
I already covered this about three weeks ago: Microsoft Copilot has been extended with Cowork as an additional component. And what is the idea behind Cowork? The idea is that it gives me the ability to do things I know from Claude — right inside Microsoft 365. What do you need for that? Starting in May you will need an E7 licence.
You can add 15 euros on top of that and Cowork is included. If you are part of the Frontier Programme or, like me, a Microsoft Partner, you can get an early look at certain things. Let us explore this together.
Getting Started with Microsoft Cowork
I will share my screen so we can take a look. There is a section here called All Agents. When I go to All Agents, I have the option to search for agents. Let me do that — I will search for Cowork. There it is: Microsoft Frontier. Once I navigate to Frontier, I can open it and pin it to the sidebar just like any other tool.
Now, of course, I am one of the first to notice that it is now live. That means it will occasionally hiccup at this stage. But what you can already see is the interface. The interface lets you choose between different options, including which model to use.
Two Claude models from Anthropic are available here. Sonnet is the all-rounder model that covers most tasks perfectly well — you do not always need to burn tokens on the most expensive models. Opus is the more powerful one — the super model, so to speak — for more demanding requirements.
You can also add work context via the Plus button, upload images and files, or
attach cloud files. Those two areas will be familiar to you from the standard Microsoft 365 Copilot. What is new — and this is the most important part — is that you can now add people, files, and meetings. You can see your most recent meetings beautifully displayed. You can add emails, chats, channels — the various Teams channels — and the various SharePoint pages. And incidentally, the Anthropic models tend to be a bit more capable than the OpenAI ones — the ChatGPT models.
What Are Qualifications or Skills?
What is interesting here is the concept of qualifications — and these qualifications are essentially PDFs. So if I want to work with PDF files, for example, there are already pre-defined skills that can work with specific areas. There are qualifications for Word — meaning if the task involves editing Word documents, Excel files, or PowerPoint presentations, working with your calendar, doing a daily briefing with emails, or working with meetings — you should select the right skill for your task, and then you get the relevant information included.
That is what you can add here. You can also format the input — I have not fully understood yet why formatting the input field is available. And of course you can work with the microphone here as well.
There are also a few prompt templates. The nice thing is they give you ideas. The whole interface is currently in English. Let me move to the other side of the screen so I am not in the way. So, for example, one template says: Help me organise my inbox — for all emails, delete spam, summarise non-urgent messages, accept or decline meeting invites accordingly, and reply urgently if something is pressing. And by the way, when it deletes emails, it asks for confirmation first. You can also schedule all of this — it works exactly like that. You can add various items, choose the model, and kick it off. I tried one thing here that was suggested to me: I asked it to do a company analysis.
So what I did was say: Help me analyse a company. That is what the company analysis template does. When I did not specify a company, it asked me — and I said, please use Microsoft. Then it tells me what to do: I want multiple pages, a company overview — somewhat more detailed than what the Researcher provides — or it can immediately create complete documents for me. I then said I would like it for Nvidia, after it asked me. Now it is producing an Executive Summary, a Company Overview, Financial Results, and so on. I now have a complete document it generated, with the various outputs right here. I click on the Financial Model it created — and there is a complete document. The quality is noticeably higher than what the Researcher produces. And now the Excel document: it creates a complete Excel file as a Financial Model. Wow — that is a whole different level compared to what the Researcher delivers.
It is always a good idea to let Cowork inspire you here — looking at what is available. There is the inbox, there is a week-organiser, and behind these prompts are naturally English-language instructions that you can modify. I can prepare for a meeting, for example — again, always a good idea. And what I had done was research a company. Of course you always have the history attached behind it.
How to Activate Cowork
Now let us look at how to activate all of this. You go into the administration settings, find the Copilot section, and there is a subsection — just a moment — All Agents. Under All Agents, you enter Cowork in the search field. When you search for Cowork, it appears — provided you are in the Frontier Programme. From there you can assign it: which users in your organisation should have access? I assigned it to my own organisation. The second step is to go into the Copilot settings — right here in the Copilot settings — and explicitly enable access to Anthropic models. Because by default it is not enabled — you have to turn it on separately. The reason is that all data protection policies apply just as they do for Microsoft generally. Corporate data protection is ensured, and data is not used for training purposes.
How Is Data Privacy Handled in Cowork?
However, the Anthropic models run on Amazon Web Services in the United States. Against that backdrop — if you want to be strict about it — I would not upload highly confidential data there. But my colleague Raphael Kölner, who deals very extensively with data protection and data security, has also clearly stated that it is perfectly usable. I am happy to recommend his link — he is someone I would strongly suggest. He is an expert on data protection and compliance, and we as Microsoft Partners regularly refer clients to him. He is an MVP — Most Valuable Professional — in this area and is very active. He has also written an article about this, which explains how it works: the service is obtained through the Microsoft contract, no separate contract with Anthropic is concluded.
The Microsoft terms and conditions apply. That also means the commitment that no training occurs on your data holds here too. What is also positive: all Defender and Purview features also apply to Claude and Opus. Purview is the component where you configure your entire compliance setup. If you need support there, feel free to call me.
And here too — on the topic of data transfers: because the colleagues at Anthropic work with AWS — Amazon Web Services — they function here as a Trusted Provider. The responsible entity remains Microsoft Dublin. So as long as that arrangement is not terminated, the assessment is that there is a valid legal basis.
To quote Raphael Kölner's data protection assessment: without deeper examination, use is initially possible on the existing contractual basis, because technical measures such as Sensitivity Labels, DLP — Data Loss Prevention — and Sensitivity Info Types are available. Meaning I can use Purview to specify precisely which information must not be uploaded. That is exactly the idea: certain things are simply not permitted to be uploaded, and you can configure that very finely through Purview. So, as mentioned, it is fundamentally possible and his recommendation — though given the current political uncertainty and enforcement of data subject requests, he advises against uploading sensitive data or data of protection class 4. That can, however, be controlled through Purview as well. And there is also the announcement that a European hosting option is coming.
Activating Copilot Frontier
In the administration settings, let us take another look — specifically at Frontier. If you have Frontier here, you can use the search to find it, and then decide whether you want to participate in the Copilot Frontier programme or not.
Claude Cowork Compared to Analyst and Researcher
This means you can activate Frontier for individual users. Let me take another look here. I find the quality of the analysis — and of the well-structured Excel file — genuinely impressive. It is clearly a notch above what you get today from Researcher or Analyst. It is essentially a combination of Analyst and Researcher. The idea is: with Analyst or Researcher you ask a question and get an answer. Here you can say, for example: every Monday morning, give me a news summary on the following topics. It does that every morning automatically — you can schedule it. It pulls information automatically, creates a newsletter, and there you have it. So the idea of Claude Cowork, now integrated into Microsoft 365, is that it does not just answer a question but executes complete tasks — and you can even schedule those on a recurring basis. All of this, as mentioned, for an additional licence — which I find justified. The models cost money: tokens — I know what I am talking about, I burn a fair number of Claude tokens myself.
And the appeal is that, unlike using Claude Code directly, you can configure it cleanly against your own security and compliance policies in Purview. Against that backdrop, I think this is a very strong approach: Microsoft essentially says, we have our Office suite and we integrate best-of-breed systems into it.
The Integration of Claude with Microsoft Office — Word, Excel, PowerPoint
I am now hoping that this integration will also reach into Excel and PowerPoint more deeply, because I have to be honest: the Claude plugins for Excel and PowerPoint are outstanding. Try Shortcut and Claude are by far the best — and clearly more capable than what you get today even in the paid version of Microsoft Copilot with its editing mode. You can now click in the sidebar and ask it to make changes. It does work for straightforward things, but it can be genuinely slow at times. And once you are used to the speed and power of Claude Code or the Claude plugin, or Try Shortcut, your expectations are naturally higher.
Recommendations and Tips for Using Claude Cowork
If Cowork has not yet arrived in your organisation, the main reasons are: you need to be in the Frontier Programme, and you need to have enabled Anthropic access in the Copilot settings — because it does not run in Europe by default and must be explicitly activated. It is not included as standard.
Once you have it in your production environment, you either have a full licence for €99 (all you can eat) or add Cowork for an additional €15. I will keep reporting and keep testing, and I will start moving more things from my Claude environment over to the Microsoft environment. Right now a few more Microsoft Partners are doing the same, which is why there is still the occasional notice that the load is currently a bit high. And you may have heard that one of Claude's data centres was recently bombed by Iranian forces in the Middle East. That has taken some capacity offline.
And because Anthropic took a stand against the Pentagon's policy, a number of users switched from ChatGPT to Claude, increasing demand. At the same time, one fewer Amazon data centre, as it fell victim to a bombing. So against that backdrop — sometimes a little patience is needed. That is why I always have multiple systems running, partly because I need to test them too. I always have Try Shortcut, the Claude add-on, and Microsoft 365. One of the three always works.
If you are working in a corporate context, my strong recommendation is naturally to work with Microsoft Copilot. And I found Raphael Kölner's assessment very valuable here too: with the right configurations in Purview and the security area, it is absolutely usable in Germany as well.
Conclusion
I hope this has been another valuable impulse for you. With that, I wish you a productive week and am happy to help with any questions on artificial intelligence, Microsoft 365, and iPad — because as you can see, these things are increasingly coming together.
Your Personal IT Coach for executives, Thorsten Jekel.
Key Takeaways
- Microsoft Cowork is a new agent within Microsoft 365 Copilot, powered by Anthropic's Claude models (Sonnet and Opus).
- Starting in May, Cowork requires an E7 licence with an additional €15 add-on for Cowork access.
- Cowork allows access to people, files, meetings, emails, chats, Teams channels, and SharePoint pages as context sources.
- Pre-defined skills (qualifications) for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, calendar, and email enable targeted automations.
- Unlike Analyst or Researcher, Cowork executes complete tasks and can be scheduled on a recurring basis — for example, creating a news summary every Monday morning.
- The company analysis feature produces structured Word and Excel documents (e.g. Financial Model) at a quality level that exceeds what the Researcher delivers.
- From a data protection perspective, Microsoft's contracts and terms apply; data is not used for training. However, the Anthropic models run on Amazon Web Services in the US.
- Via Microsoft Purview, Sensitivity Labels and DLP rules can be configured to prevent the upload of sensitive data.
- To activate Cowork, you must be in the Microsoft Copilot Frontier Programme and enable Anthropic models in the Copilot settings.
- In a corporate context, Microsoft Copilot with Cowork is recommended because your own compliance policies can be cleanly configured through Purview.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Microsoft Cowork and what is it for?
Microsoft Cowork is a new agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot, powered by Anthropic's Claude models (Sonnet and Opus). Unlike a simple chat assistant, Cowork can execute complete tasks and schedule them on a recurring basis — for example, generating a news summary every morning.
What licence do I need for Microsoft Cowork?
Microsoft Cowork requires an E7 licence starting in May. You can add Cowork on top of that for an additional €15, or choose a full all-you-can-eat licence for €99.
Which Claude models are integrated in Microsoft Cowork?
Microsoft Cowork includes two Anthropic models: Claude Sonnet, which is sufficient for most tasks, and Claude Opus, the more powerful model for more demanding requirements.
What are qualifications (skills) in Microsoft Cowork?
Qualifications are pre-defined skills in Microsoft Cowork that enable it to work with specific applications. These include skills for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, calendar, email, and meetings — you select the relevant skill depending on the task at hand.
How does Cowork differ from Analyst and Researcher in Microsoft 365?
While Analyst and Researcher in Microsoft 365 answer individual questions, Cowork executes complete tasks and can be run on a schedule. Cowork is essentially a combination of Analyst and Researcher that can additionally handle recurring, automated tasks.
How do I activate Microsoft Cowork in my organisation?
To activate Microsoft Cowork, go to the administration settings, navigate to Copilot and then All Agents, and search for Cowork. You must also explicitly enable Anthropic model access in the Copilot settings, as it is not activated by default.
What is the Microsoft Copilot Frontier Programme?
The Microsoft Copilot Frontier Programme allows participants to test new Microsoft features such as Cowork before the general rollout. Microsoft Partners and Frontier Programme members can activate Cowork and other new agents early in their organisations.
How is data privacy handled in Microsoft Cowork?
Microsoft's contracts and terms apply to Cowork, and data is not used for training Anthropic's models. However, the models run on Amazon Web Services in the United States, so highly confidential data should not be uploaded. Via Microsoft Purview, Sensitivity Labels and DLP rules can be configured to control what information may be uploaded.
Can Microsoft Cowork create company analyses?
Yes, Microsoft Cowork can create comprehensive company analyses based on a template, including Executive Summary, Company Overview, and Financial Model as Word and Excel documents. The quality of these analyses is noticeably higher than what the Researcher in Microsoft 365 delivers.
What advantages does Microsoft Cowork offer over using Claude directly?
The key advantage of Microsoft Cowork over using Claude directly is seamless integration with your own security and compliance policies through Microsoft Purview. In a corporate context, data protection requirements can be cleanly configured — something that is not possible in the same way with direct use of Claude Code or Claude.ai.
Tools & Resources Mentioned
- Microsoft 365 Copilot — the base platform into which Cowork is integrated as a new agent
- Claude (Anthropic) — AI models Sonnet and Opus, integrated into Microsoft Cowork
- Microsoft Purview — compliance component for Sensitivity Labels, DLP, and data protection configuration in Microsoft 365
- Try Shortcut — Claude plugin for Excel and PowerPoint, described as highly capable by the author
- Raphael Kölner (MVP) — data protection and compliance expert for Microsoft 365, whose article on the data protection assessment of Cowork is recommended
