Anthropic leads AI tool growth; Microsoft 365 dominates by account count

Okta, an identity management service provider, released findings from a study of enterprise AI tool adoption based on anonymized access data from over 20,000 companies. The research covered the period from June 2022 to June 2026 and examined two key dimensions: growth rate and absolute account count.

On growth rate, Anthropic ranked first by a wide margin. Using a scale where Anthropic scored 100, OpenAI came in second with 66.9, Google Workspace third with 59.8, GitHub fourth with 56.6, and Cursor fifth with 42.4. The red markers on Okta's chart indicate companies with customer growth rates of 4× or higher. The study notes that Anthropic's four-year growth rate was notably higher than all peers, reflecting its rapid adoption in enterprise settings.

When measured by total enterprise account count, the picture shifted. Microsoft 365 held the top position, with Google Workspace in second place and rapidly narrowing the gap. Looking ahead from January 2026, Anthropic's enterprise account growth is projected to spike sharply, while OpenAI and Cursor show more moderate expansion. Okta observed that approximately 57% of enterprises use two or more AI platforms concurrently, adopting a "right tool for the job" approach that balances use cases across vendors.

The scope of the study was deliberately bounded: it included foundation models, developer tools, enterprise search, collaboration and productivity tools, voice transcription and meeting AI, and creative suites aimed at knowledge workers and software developers. Okta excluded vertical-specific business systems, AI delivered through cloud infrastructure, and cybersecurity-focused AI from the analysis. This framing captures the horizontal AI market more precisely but does not represent the entire enterprise AI landscape.

Okta's analysis, based on data from over 20,000 enterprises, offers one of the largest real-world windows into enterprise AI adoption trends. The divergence between growth rate and absolute account count tells a clear story: while Microsoft 365 maintains the largest enterprise footprint (benefiting from deep Office integration), newer or more specialized AI vendors are growing faster. Anthropic's four-year growth rate of 100—more than 50% higher than OpenAI's 66.9—reflects rapid adoption of Claude among enterprises since the model's launch, while OpenAI's slower relative growth may reflect market saturation or switching behavior as enterprises evaluate alternatives.

The finding that 57% of enterprises use multiple AI platforms simultaneously signals a structural shift away from "best-of-breed" consolidation and toward a composable AI stack. Companies are no longer waiting for one vendor to solve all AI needs; instead, they are choosing Anthropic for certain tasks, Microsoft for others, Google for still others. This fragmentation is particularly visible in the diverging trajectories after January 2026: Anthropic accounts are projected to accelerate sharply, while OpenAI and Cursor show moderating growth—a sign that enterprises are actively rebalancing their AI portfolios. The scope limitations (excluding vertical-specific systems, cloud-delivered AI, and security AI) mean this data captures primarily horizontal AI tools, not the full enterprise AI market, but within that segment, the competitive intensity and specialization are clear.