Austin Lau from Anthropic explains how to effectively use Claude Cowork for non-technical knowledge work. The article distinguishes between using Chat for brainstorming, Claude Code for software development, and Claude Cowork for delegating multi-step tasks that produce tangible deliverables like documents or spreadsheets. It provides a checklist for identifying ideal tasks—such as those involving multiple inputs, recurring workflows, and repetitive manual processes—and shares practical marketing examples like automated daily briefings and budget pacing.
This article advocates for wider adoption of Claude Code, an AI tool from Anthropic designed to write, edit, and fix code. Initially an internal tool for Anthropic developers, it's now publicly available as a command-line tool that operates within your terminal. It can understand natural language instructions to modify codebases, and even assists with non-programming tasks like file organization and research. While the terminal interface can be intimidating, the author suggests using it within an IDE or utilizing the Claude Desktop app's integrated Cowork interface, highlighting its potential for both developers and non-developers.
