What Microsoft changed
Microsoft is adding Grok models from SpaceXAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, to Copilot in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The company announced the change on 12 September in a post titled Expanding model choice in Copilot with Grok, and the models began rolling out to eligible customers over the weekend, AlternativeTo reported.
Access comes through Microsoft’s Frontier Program, which Microsoft describes as “a focused release to gather feedback on how customers use the model in common productivity work”, according to Office Watch. Grok becomes another option alongside models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft itself.
Microsoft has not said which Grok version powers the integration. Office Watch noted that Grok 4.6 is widely listed as SpaceXAI’s latest released frontier model, but that Microsoft’s preview announcement does not identify the version, so customers switching it on cannot tell which model they are getting.
Off unless an admin turns it on
The models are not available to anyone by default. Organisations must first enable a dedicated administrative setting, which is disabled out of the box, AlternativeTo reported. Office Watch said admins find it in Copilot settings under AI providers for other large language models.
The preview is also closed to Frontier customers in the European Union, the European Free Trade Association and the United Kingdom. Microsoft has given no timeline for those regions.
Where the data goes
The compliance question is the one administrators will ask first. When an organisation chooses to use the Grok models, “data is processed outside Microsoft-managed environments and audit controls”, Office Watch reported. SpaceXAI has been added to Microsoft’s Online Services Subprocessor List, according to AlternativeTo.
That makes the default-off switch more than a formality. Enabling Grok means a company’s documents and prompts are handled by a third party under Microsoft’s subprocessor terms, which is likely a reason the preview excludes Europe and the UK.
Why it matters
Copilot began as a product built on OpenAI’s models. Adding Anthropic and now Grok turns it into a front end where the model underneath is a setting, and gives Microsoft leverage with every supplier, including OpenAI. For SpaceXAI, Word, Excel and PowerPoint put Grok in front of business users it has had little access to.
The addition also lands as Microsoft sets out how models should behave. On Monday, TechCrunch reported on a new Microsoft AI “code of conduct” that tells models not to hack systems or trick humans. Microsoft has not said whether those rules extend to third-party models offered inside Copilot.
What to watch
The next steps are whether Microsoft names the Grok version, whether the models reach general availability outside the Frontier Program, and whether they come to the EU, EFTA and the UK, where data processing outside Microsoft’s own environment is the harder case to make.
