Microsoft's new Office chief Lamanna proposed paying Anthropic to fix Copilot, seen as Nadella successor
matt_slotnick · x · 2026-10-12
Aaron Holmes profiles Charles Lamanna, Microsoft's new Office chief. In summer 2025, with Copilot facing customer complaints over buggy Excel/PowerPoint automation, Lamanna — then a Microsoft president — pitched CEO Satya Nadella a bold idea: paying for Anthropic models to make Copilot better. "At the time, that was heresy," he said. The piece details his delicate balancing act choosing models for Copilot as it competes with Claude and ChatGPT, and reports several senior execs now view him as a potential Nadella successor. Commentators highlight the lede: products must be the best they can be, no longer subservient to marketing messages.
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