Microsoft Joins AI Cost-Cutting Trend by Relying More on Its Own MAI Models in Word and Excel

What happened

TechCrunch reported on July 7, 2026 that Microsoft has begun routing a portion of user prompts in Word and Excel through its own in-house MAI models instead of OpenAI or Anthropic models, reducing costs on consumer AI deployments.

Context and impact

At Build 2026 in May, Microsoft unveiled a series of 7 new MAI models (text, image, agentic coder, text-to-image). By deploying its own models in commercial products, Microsoft signals a shift from exclusive OpenAI dependency to a hybrid model. This is part of a broader trend: Meta, Google, and other tech giants are reducing AI costs through proprietary models.

Details

• MAI models now handle a percentage of prompts in MS Word and MS Excel
• Microsoft Build 2026: 7 new internal MAI models including an agentic coder and image generator
• Microsoft still plans massive investments in OpenAI (committed $10B)
• AI cost-optimization trend in enterprise is accelerating across the industry