Microsoft will switch on Anthropic's Claude for UK Copilot users on December 9

Microsoft will turn on Anthropic's Claude AI models by default for UK business customers of Copilot, its AI assistant, starting December 9. If nobody at your company has picked a setting by then, Claude will be on, and Anthropic will handle the related data in the United States.

What changed

Claude is already on by default for most of Microsoft's commercial cloud customers. The EU, the European Free Trade Association countries and the UK were left out. The UK is not covered by Microsoft's EU Data Boundary, a program launched at the start of 2023 to keep data in Europe. So Microsoft is now flipping the switch for the UK.

Anthropic acts as a Microsoft subprocessor. That means an outside company that handles data on Microsoft's behalf. Microsoft's documentation says Anthropic processes the data in the US. Administrators can turn Claude off, but leaving the setting alone counts as saying yes.

Microsoft is also retiring the setting that limited Claude to Microsoft 365 only.

Who should care

Any UK organization using Copilot is affected. Businesses with rules about where their data may be handled have the most to check, since US processing may not fit those rules. Organizations that have already chosen a setting do not fall under the default.

The alert above lists the steps. In short, find out who manages Copilot settings at your company and get a decision made before the deadline.

What is not clear

The material does not say exactly which data would be sent to Anthropic, or whether Microsoft will warn administrators again before December 9.