Anthropic provided Claude with an upgrade to integrate many of the most popular work apps into its AI assistant. Claude Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise subscribers can now compose and preview Slack messages, edit Figma charts, update Asana timelines, and manipulate analytics dashboards, with Claude acting as a link between them all.
Anthropic now takes Claude into the more complicated, click-by-click reality of modern digital work. The tools appear in the chat with Claude. So a draft Slack message looks like a Slack message, and an Asana timeline can be customized with live views.
It all runs on an open source model context protocol extension called MCP Apps. This allows all participating tools to appear in Claude’s chat. The idea is to reduce switching between multiple applications and browser tabs, thus reducing the time spent searching for the right file or view.
Anthropic’s goal would be for users to ask Claude to act on behalf of many other tabs. If you ask him to track a marketing calendar in Asana and assign some items to the design lead, Claude could open the live board and update it.
You could then compose a Slack approval message summarizing the changes and send it with your approval. This is more effective than simply providing a to-do list or link, as is often the case.
This fluidity is part of the problem. Anthropic’s speech aims to reduce friction.
Until now, AI productivity workflows have still relied on some form of mental multitasking. With MCP Apps, Anthropic is clearly committed to creating a future where everything in your AI conversations is managed for both professionals and consumers.
Everything in Claude
OpenAI, Google and others are running in the same direction, each with slightly different approaches. OpenAI’s GPT-based apps can run on ChatGPT but still operate semi-independently from the chatbot, as Google’s Gemini becomes ubiquitous in your workspace. But Claude’s new tools stand out for their integration into the chat itself.
Of course, giving an AI assistant direct access to platforms like Slack or Asana means that your conversations, projects, and decisions become part of your working memory. Anthropic promises a strict sandbox and clear permissions, but as with all workplace technology, the devil is in the default settings.
It is not a revolution for everyone either. The current implementation supports the web and desktop versions of Claude, but not yet the mobile versions or the Claude Cowork experience. And if your day doesn’t include charts, presentations, timelines, or charts, you might not notice many changes in the way Claude works.
For those who do, this could be the beginning of a real moment of consolidation. Instead of drowning in tabs, inboxes, and dashboards, AI brings it all together. A creative team can write a concept, assign tasks, build the platform, and send updates from a single Claude chat.
The great idea of the magician becoming a platform has legs. This changes our view of generative AI from complementary operations to core operations.
While AI is not always perfect, changing where and how work is done appears to be a more profound advancement. It’s too early to call Claude’s plans a blueprint for the next standard desktop, but if the conversational work is completed successfully, it could set Anthropic up for many more deals.
