There are, however, some limitations compared to Anthropic’s tool. “Unlike Claude Cowork, [Copilot Cowork] does not support local computer use, cannot interact directly with local files or applications, and lacks native integrations with third-party tools and services,” Gartner analysts said in a research note. “These omissions constrain Cowork’s autonomy and limit its ability to operate end-to-end workloads outside Microsoft 365.”
There are also risks associated with deploying an agentic tool such as Copilot Cowork in a business setting, said Gownder: “Anthropic transparently suggests that sensitive information shouldn’t be used with Claude Cowork at this time,” he said. “In theory, adding [Copilot Cowork] to Microsoft 365 makes it cloud-enabled and scalable with greater data access…, if it works, which is not a given based on Copilot’s trajectory so far.”
There are also questions about whether the tool can live up to its promise of usefulness to business users.
