Microsoft Made GPT and Claude Work Together—And the Result Beats Every AI Research Tool Out There

Every company has been trying to convince you that their single AI model is the smartest researcher in the room. Microsoft just said: Why pick one?

Introducing Critique, a new multi-model deep research system in M365 Copilot.

“Critique is a new multi model deep research system designed for complex research tasks. It separates generation from evaluation and utilizes a combination of models from Frontier labs, including Anthropic and OpenAI,” Microsoft explains. “One model leads the generation phase, planning the task, iterating through retrieval, and producing an initial draft, while a second model focuses on review and refinement, acting as an expert reviewer before the final report is produced.”

Here's the basic problem Critique is designed to fix: Every AI research tool today works the same way. You ask a question, one model plans a search, scours sources, writes a report, and hands it back to you. That single model is doing everything with no one checking its work.

This can end up with some hallucinations slipping in, some errors in citations, fake or inaccurate claims, etc.

Critique breaks that workflow in two. GPT handles the first phase—it plans the research, pulls sources, and writes an initial draft. Then Claude steps in as a strict editor, reviewing the report for factual accuracy, citation quality, and whether the answer actually addressed what was asked. Only after that review does the final report reach the user. Microsoft says the roles can eventually run in the opposite direction too, with Claude drafting and GPT critiquing, though for now GPT goes first.

The biggest gains showed up in breadth of analysis and presentation quality, with factual accuracy also posting a significant improvement.

In Critique, the models essentially collaborate with each other while in Council the models compete against each other.

Critique is the default experience in Researcher whereas Council requires you to select "Model Council" from the picker to activate the side-by-side mode. Both features are currently available to users enrolled in Microsoft's Frontier program, the early-access channel for Copilot's newest capabilities. A Microsoft 365 Copilot license ($30/user/month) is required, but users also need to be enrolled in Frontier to access them.

OpenAI and Microsoft have a multibillion-dollar partnership, but Microsoft's bet is that no single model stays on top for long, and that the real value is in the orchestration layer that routes tasks to whichever combination works best.