AI-Powered Productivity Disruption: Microsoft, OpenAI, and Legal Challenges in Copyright Training

[00:00:02] It's Thursday, June 26, 2025, and I'm Dave Solt. Four things to know today. Microsoft struggles to push Copilot as enterprise's favorite ChatGPT. AI-driven platforms shrink MSP tool sets threatening the traditional value proposition. Legal rulings on AI training data reshape the copyright battleground. And OpenAI, Anthropic, and Ruist are defining what AI-powered productivity looks like. This is the business of tech.

[00:00:32] From some reporting in Bloomberg, Microsoft is facing challenges in promoting its Copilot AI assistant to corporations, as many employees prefer OpenAI's ChatGPT. This reflects a growing trend in the enterprise market where OpenAI's innovations are gaining traction, creating competitive pressure for Microsoft. Notably, last spring, Amgen Inc., a major pharmaceutical company, announced plans to implement Microsoft's Copilot for 20,000 employees, which Microsoft highlighted across multiple cases.

[00:01:02] In the online space studies, however, Internet Research. However, OpenAI's emerging strength in this space suggests a shifting landscape and artificial intelligence adoption within the corporate sector, as more companies recognize the potential benefits of Generative AI solutions.

[00:01:14] In a recent report by Channel Program, the transformative impact of AI on managed services providers is focused, as the report reveals that AI-driven platforms are increasingly taking precedent over traditional tools, with a number of product categories expected to shrink from 13 to 7 as vendors integrate services for greater interoperability.

[00:01:35] The findings suggest that while AI-powered automation can reduce operational costs, it may lead to market challenges as pricing pressures increase. The report calls for MSPs to shift their focus from troubleshooting to delivering strategic insights and business optimization. Kaseya's new CEO, Rania Sukar, highlights that the adoption of generative artificial intelligence among enterprise customers is lagging behind industry expectations due to several significant challenges,

[00:02:05] comments at the recent DattoCon event in Dublin, Ireland. She points out that the integration of fragmented customer order and financial data is crucial for the effectiveness of AI solutions, as noted in a recent benchmark indicating that large language model agents perform poorly in standard customer relationship management tests. Why do we care? Well, we care because the AI revolution everyone's hyping doesn't match the operational reality on the ground.

[00:02:32] Microsoft's struggle to sell Copilot internally, even as OpenAI's ChatGPT gains traction is a perfect example. And users are circumventing sanctioned tools for better-performing consumer-grade options, exposing a key failure. IT leaders are deploying tools that users don't find helpful, a death knell for ROI. It also reflects a control problem. Microsoft is bundling AI features into its stack, but OpenAI's UX, speed, and flexibility are winning favor.

[00:03:00] It suggests product-market fit issues persist, even with the vendor that dominates enterprise productivity. The channel program data is telling, AI is collapsing categories and platforms are consolidating. This threatens traditional MSP playbooks. If platforms do more out-of-the-box, value propositions based on reselling, integrating, or managing siloed tools weaken. The race to integrate AI will reduce the number of tools MSPs need to support.

[00:03:29] That also means fewer billable hours for support, configuration, and training. Sukar's caution is worth spotlighting. Fragmented internal data, spread across CRMs, ERPs, or disconnected systems, is tanking the performance of AI tools that were promised to beat magic. The lack of clean, unified data makes even powerful models dumb. The AI wave is not a rising tide lifting all boats. It's a riptide pulling apart shallow business models.

[00:03:58] MSPs should not chase AI in tools and start owning AI in outcomes. That's where the margin will be and where the differentiation lives. This episode is supported by Synchro. Synchro, the integrated remote monitoring and management and professional services automation platform, is designed for mid-sized and growing managed service providers. Its latest innovations include an AI-powered smart ticket management system with automatic ticket classifications,

[00:04:28] guided resolution steps using pre-approved scripts, and a natural language smart search function. These tools streamline ticket handling and improve response times. Discover more at synchromsp.com. Anthropic has won a significant legal victory regarding artificial intelligence and copyright. A federal judge has decided that Anthropic can train its AI models on legally purchased books

[00:04:54] without needing permission from authors, classifying the practice as fair use. However, the ruling is limited to physical books that the company has bought and digitized. Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California also indicated that Anthropic faces a separate trial regarding the alleged piracy of millions of books from the Internet. The decision allows Anthropic to train its AI tools on copyrighted materials without permission, a ruling deemed transformative. However, the case is not over.

[00:05:24] The court also allowed authors to take Anthropic through trial for allegedly pirating over 7 million copies of books for its training databases. The judge highlighted that while training on copyrighted works was lawful, the use of pirated materials was not excusable, indicating potential damages could reach billions of dollars. Anthropic spent millions of dollars acquiring used print books, which were then destructively scanned into digital files, leading to the disposal of the original copies.

[00:05:52] Anthropic noted that while the transformative nature of using purchased books for training could qualify as fair use, the act of downloading pirated versions clearly crossed a legal boundary. MetaFlatforms has secured its significant legal victory regarding the use of copyrighted materials for AI training, with a federal judge ruling in the company's favor. However, this ruling does not confirm that such use qualifies as fair use, as highlighted by Judge Vince Chalabria.

[00:06:21] The lawsuit was initiated by 13 authors who claimed that Meta illegally trained its AI systems on their works without permission. The judge stated that while Meta is entitled to summary judgment on its fair use defense, the plaintiffs failed to present compelling arguments to support their claims. The judge specifically noted that the plaintiffs did not sufficiently demonstrate how Meta's actions would dilute their licensing opportunities in the market. Why do we care?

[00:06:49] We care because these rulings signal that the legal terrain for training AI on copyrighted content is shifting, but it's far from settled. For IT services firms, especially those integrating AI into client solutions, the implications are both strategic and operational. The rulings are a strategic green light, with a flashing yellow for anyone downstream of the AI supply chain. Providers must begin treating AI data provenance like software licensing,

[00:07:17] a risk to be audited, verified, and disclosed. Those who blindly adopt black box models will find themselves exposed, legally, ethically, and reputationally. Each quarter of this podcast releases our research data on the demographic makeup of IT leadership, broken down by race and sex. By surveying public websites, we're looking to track the change over time. This quarter, we surveyed 300 companies and 4,154 humans,

[00:07:46] 48% vendors, 48% technology providers. This quarter, we found that 87% are white and 2.8% are black. The breakdown is also 78.2% male. The data remains similar between vendors and tech providers. When we look at publicly traded or Fortune 1000 companies, the numbers do improve for women, remaining at 26%. The racial divide remains within 2%.

[00:08:11] This data is essentially identical for all the data reports for 2024 and this year, keeping us on track for little movement. Axios provided additional data here. Women executives face increasing challenges in securing leadership roles as the momentum for diversity in hiring diminishes. Recent data shows the jobless rate for black women has risen to 5.8%, up from 5.3% a year ago, overtaking black men's jobless rate of 5.6%

[00:08:40] and highlighting ongoing disparities in the job market. According to Lindsay Trout, a talent consultant, the criteria for executive searches has become more rigid, often excluding non-traditional candidates, which affects the representation of women and people of color in top positions. After a surge of diversity appointments in 2020 and 2021, companies are now reverting to previous practices, resulting in fewer women appointed to boards.

[00:09:08] Catalyst, a non-profit advocating for women in the workplace, warns that scaling back on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts can lead to legal risks and loss of talent. Additionally, investing in companies that prioritize gender diversity is proving profitable, with the SPDR-MCSCI USA Gender Diversity Exchange Trade Fund up 5.4% this year, outperforming the S&B 500's gain of 2.2%. And congratulations to OIT VoIP,

[00:09:38] which has been awarded the Advancing Diversity and Technology Leadership Award at the 2025 GTIA Spotlight Awards, recognizing its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the technology industry. Now, why do we care? The IT industry's leadership pipeline is broken, and pretending otherwise is bad business. As large companies scale back efforts, they risk alienating top talent, which is an opportunity for smaller firms, including MSPs,

[00:10:06] to differentiate themselves by building inclusive cultures. I highlight OIT VoIP because their community sentiment matches their award. From an analysis of our channel chatter data, OIT VoIP maintains a solid base of loyal partners and is recognized for white-label flexibility, good commissions, and transparent leadership. That shows investment in culture. It shows what smaller firms can do and lead by example.

[00:10:34] OpenAI is reportedly developing collaboration features within ChatGPT to compete directly with Google Workspace and Microsoft Office. The features will allow users to work together on documents and communicate via chat, positioning OpenAI against its major stakeholders and partners. The company has been working on these tools for over a year, launching its first step with the Canvas feature, which simplifies document drafting. Anthropic has introduced a new feature within its Claude AI chatbot

[00:11:02] that allows users to create AI-powered applications directly in the app. The capacity builds on the company's previous artifacts feature, enabling users to not only generate code, but also interact with the results in real time. The new functionality is currently in beta and is available across Anthropic's free, pro, and max subscription tiers. Early adopters have reported creating a variety of applications, including games, educational tools, and data analysis programs.

[00:11:30] The initiative aims to foster collaboration by allowing users to share their creations with the unique structure of API usage, ensuring that other subscriptions are charged for app usage rather than the creators. And Ruist has expanded its AI-powered automation platform, introducing new features that enhance the capabilities of its intelligent assistant, RoboRusti. The latest updates include the ability to generate end-to-end automations

[00:11:56] from natural language prompts and provide real-time assistance with writing and debugging code. Ruist's chief executive officer emphasized that users can now simply describe what they want to automate, and RoboRusti will build it for them. Additionally, the launch of a model context protocol server allows external AI agents to connect with Ruist's automation engine securely. The integration supports the customization of automation processes while ensuring security and control,

[00:12:26] allowing service providers to avoid vendor lock-in and build their own AI models. Why do we care? Well, the era of AI-powered productivity isn't coming. It's here, and it's being led by new players, not just established ones. OpenAI's move into collaboration tools could reshape the competitive landscape in the productivity software market. Clients may ask, do we still need Google or Microsoft if OpenAI offers AI-native collaboration?

[00:12:53] Especially if OpenAI is seen as the preferred AI-assisted platform. Anthropic is quietly moving beyond chat and into application enablement, and Ruist's new features effectively make natural language the new scripting language. That's a lot of potential disruption to consider. Thanks for listening. Today is National Work From Home Day and National Barcode Day. It's National Canoe Day and National Chocolate Pudding Day.

[00:13:21] So work from home, in your canoe, with chocolate pudding. Join me for two upcoming webinars. The first, sponsored by Nerdio, on modern endpoint management with Intune, what works and what doesn't. Visit bit.ly slash nerdio webinar. And the second, a little bit later, sponsored by ThreatDown, AI's dark side, what every MSP needs to know. That one at bit.ly slash ThreatDown, with links to both in the show notes.

[00:13:49] The Business of Tech is written and produced by me, Dave Sobel, under ethics guidelines, posted at businessof.tech. If you've enjoyed the show, make sure you've subscribed or followed on your favorite platform. It's free and helps directly. Give us a review, too. If you want to support the show, visit patreon.com slash MSP radio, and you'll get access to content early. Or buy our Why Do We Care merch at businessof.tech.

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