Claude is a separate AI tool made by a company called Anthropic. You access it at claude.ai in your browser, or through the mobile app. It's not built into Microsoft — it stands on its own.
The way to think about the difference: Copilot is like an assistant who works inside your office and knows where everything is. Claude is like a really smart advisor you can call up and talk through a problem with — even when you don't have a document in front of you.
You can use Claude to think through a decision, write something from scratch, get feedback on a proposal, prepare for a hard conversation, or ask 'what am I missing here?' It's designed to have a real back-and-forth conversation with you — not just spit out an answer.
You'll use both tools in this course. They do different things, and once you know which is which, you'll naturally reach for the right one.