As a software reporter at WIRED, I’ve tested a lot of shitty agents over the past couple of years. These experiences expose a consistent pattern of generative AI startups overpromising and underdelivering when it comes to these “agentic” helpers—programs designed to take control of your computer, performing chores and digital errands to free up your time for more important things. But the bots I installed on my laptop would struggle to complete even basic tasks. They just didn’t work.
This poor track record makes Anthropic’s latest agent, Claude Cowork, a nice surprise. When I tested it by running it through some basic and intermediate demos the company suggested in addition to my own commands, it worked fairly well—especially for software that’s still in beta. It can do things like organize files into folders, convert file types, generate reports, and even take over the browser to search the web or tidy up a Gmail inbox. When it comes to file management and computer interfaces, this tool feels like the start of a pleasant user experience evolution.
Last year, Anthropic nurtured a cult following for its Claude Code tool among developers who loved its ability to understand codebases and run commands, with tech staffers across San Francisco using it for their work seemingly all the time. But most people aren’t members of some buzzy startup’s technical staff.
“We tried a bunch of different ideas to see what form factor would make sense for a less technical audience that doesn’t want to use a terminal,” says Boris Cherny, Anthropic’s head of Claude Code. For the past two months, Cherny has written all of his code with AI. Cowork was built using AI tools.
Released by Anthropic earlier this week as a research preview, Cowork takes the abilities available in the company’s coding focused tool and makes the user experience more approachable. This tool is designed for the wider group of nontechnical users, who may want to experiment with a new way of controlling their computers but get freaked out by a command line.
Getting Started
Right now, Cowork is available only as part of a research preview to subscribers of Anthropic’s $100-a-month plan, which is a common release strategy for generative AI companies soft-launching new features to early adopters.
Felix Rieseberg, a member of technical staff at Anthropic who focuses on Cowork, says he uses it to file expense reports and do file conversions. “If this PDF is too big, make it smaller,” he says. “Turn these 20 JPEGs into one PDF. Make me a report about all of these things.” Rieseberg is excited by how more advanced users are already experimenting with complex applications but sees the most straightforward, file-focused applications as his “favorite” uses of the research preview.
This early release is limited to the Claude on Mac, with a wider rollout potentially down the line. And even though you can use it to interact with files on your computer, an internet connection is required for Cowork to run. The Cowork tab appears next to the Chat and Code tabs in the Claude app for macOS. User sessions are labeled as “tasks” rather than “chats.”
What About the Security Risks?
The biggest reason for not trying out Cowork is the ongoing security risk inherent in these kinds of agents. Like most agents, Cowork is susceptible to prompt injection attacks, secret messages hidden online that try to trick AI tools and deviate them from tasks. You shouldn’t expose sensitive data to a tool that can be compromised in this way.
“Since Claude can read, write, and permanently delete these files, be cautious about granting access to sensitive information like financial documents, credentials, or personal records,” reads Anthropic’s online support page. It suggests saving backups of critical files and creating a dedicated folder filled with nonsensitive information you want Claude to be able to access.
