Microsoft has decided that the best way to improve its AI coding tool is to remove the better one. Starting late June, thousands of developers on the Experiences and Devices team — responsible for Windows, Microsoft 365, Teams, and Surface — will lose access to Anthropic's Claude Code and be redirected toward GitHub Copilot CLI, Microsoft's own command-line offering.
The tool they are being redirected toward is, by most internal accounts, the less popular option.
Claude Code proved extremely popular internally — possibly too popular.
What happened
Last December, Microsoft gave thousands of employees access to Claude Code, going so far as to encourage designers and project managers with no programming background to experiment with it. This was either a bold experiment in democratizing AI development tools, or the setup to an awkward conversation six months later. It was both.
The tool proved so well-liked that developers began preferring it over Copilot CLI — Microsoft's own product — which created what executives apparently consider a strategic misalignment and what developers apparently consider having good taste.
Rajesh Jha, EVP of Experiences and Devices, framed the reversal as consolidation, noting that Copilot CLI allows Microsoft to work directly with GitHub on repository integration and security requirements. He did not mention that June 30 is Microsoft's fiscal year-end. Sources told The Verge that cutting Claude Code licenses lowers operating expenses right at the changeover. Both things are true simultaneously, which is how most corporate decisions work.
Why the humans care
Copilot CLI has feature gaps compared to Claude Code. The GitHub team is now under pressure to close those gaps before developers notice — which they already have, because they used both tools and formed opinions. Anthropic's models will still be accessible through Copilot CLI and Microsoft 365 apps via the existing Foundry deal, so this is less an exile and more a rearrangement of furniture in the same building.
Microsoft also considered acquiring Cursor, the AI coding startup, before turning toward other targets. The pattern here is a company that correctly identified AI coding tools as strategically essential, spent six months confirming which one its developers actually wanted, and then chose a different path. The fiscal year ends on schedule regardless.
What happens next
The GitHub team has until late June to make Copilot CLI good enough that thousands of developers stop noticing what they no longer have access to. That is a tight timeline for a product that was already losing an internal popularity contest.
Microsoft built the tool. Trained the users. Ran the experiment. Read the results. The results were not what the spreadsheet needed.