Axios reported on the 16th that Microsoft (MS) is exploring applying a model from Chinese AI startup DeepSeek to its corporations customer AI tool "Copilot Cowork."
According to the report, MS is reviewing a fine-tuned "DeepSeek V4" or other open-source models as low-expense options that could replace or complement the Anthropic and OpenAI models currently used in Copilot Cowork. MS plans to enable lower-expense open-source models in Copilot Cowork in the coming weeks and said it will announce the final model selection later.
Even if the DeepSeek model is introduced, it is expected to be an option customers can choose. The model will run only within MS's Azure cloud platform, and Azure's corporations-grade security, compliance, and data residency controls will apply to customer data.
Copilot Cowork is an Agentic AI tool that performs or assists with corporations tasks, similar to Anthropic's "Claude Code" and OpenAI's "Codex." However, with greater usage, computing expenses can surge, increasing the burden on corporations customers. MS said it is officially rolling out Copilot Cowork worldwide starting on the 16th with usage-based billing rather than a flat rate. To use it, a Microsoft 365 Copilot user subscription license is required.
In the AI industry, a "multi-model" strategy that splits high-performance closed models and low-cost open-source models by task type is spreading. For complex analysis or advanced development, organizations use OpenAI and Anthropic models, while cost-efficient models are deployed for repetitive tasks. MS's review of DeepSeek is seen as an example showing that competition in the enterprise AI market is shifting not only to performance but also to "expense per task."