Cowork — your digital colleague
Since September 16, 2026, Cowork and chat have merged into one Claude, on the web, desktop and mobile. No more choosing a mode: Claude decides on its own whether a reply is enough, whether it needs to work in your files and tools, or whether to produce a deliverable. Your chats, projects, artifacts, connectors and skills stay right where they were.
Three tools live in the conversation: Claude Docs (you write a document together), Claude Slides (Claude drafts the deck, you edit it, present from Claude or export to PowerPoint or PDF) and Claude Design. Since October 8, 2026, they are out of beta and open to every plan, Free included; on Enterprise, they turn on by default on October 15 (admins can enable them sooner).
Two new tools join them, in beta: Claude Dashboards, dashboards wired to your data (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Salesforce and more) that stay current and show the query behind every number, on paid plans; and Claude Motion, editable animations exported as MP4, on Team and Enterprise. On Enterprise, both are off by default.
What this changes for this module: the method below still applies, only the entry point disappears. Wherever it says "open Cowork", just open Claude.
File management
Organize, sort, rename, analyze entire folders.
Business documents
Excel with formulas, formatted PPT, Word, PDF.
Scheduled tasks
Type /schedule: morning briefing, weekly report.
From your phone
Start or follow a task from the Claude app on your phone, with a notification when it's done. Dispatch, the older tool, is no longer offered to new users.
Set up Cowork in 15 minutes — without touching a single file
Most executives give up on Cowork after ten minutes: they think they have to "configure" technical files. That's unnecessary. The principle fits in one sentence: you brief Claude the way you'd brief a new chief of staff on day one, out loud — and it sets everything up on its own.
Install the Desktop app — it is what gives Cowork access to your local files (Mac or Windows, downloaded from claude.ai, just as you would install Word). Cowork also exists on the web and on mobile, but runs in the cloud, without access to your disk.
Activate a paid subscription (≈ $20/month) — The free plan doesn't give you access to Cowork. The Pro plan covers nearly all professional use cases.
Create a "Claude" folder on your Desktop — Right-click on the Desktop → New folder → name it "Claude." This is the only manual step in the whole setup. Think of it as the shared desk where your assistant files its folders: whatever it puts there, you'll find again.
In the app, open that folder — Click Select a folder and choose the one you just created. Claude now has access to this space — and to it alone.
Copy and paste this message — Claude handles the rest — Instead of creating files by hand, simply paste this text into the conversation. Claude asks you questions, then builds and files your profile sheet itself.
Answer in plain language, as you would a person — No format to follow, no keywords. You speak naturally; Claude turns your answers into a structured sheet. That's its job, not yours.
That's it. Claude knows you. From now on, open each task with "Reread my profile, then write…". Your deliverables come out in your voice, not the generic voice of an AI. (For context that applies across all your chats — not just Cowork — see also Preferences & Projects in module 11.)
Who you are
Your role, your standards, your tone. Claude adapts every response to your executive stance.
Your company
Your industry, your clients, your offering. No more re-explaining the context in every conversation.
Your style
The phrasings you like, the ones you ban. Your documents sound like you, not like an AI.
After (colleague): permanent context, a 1-line prompt, tailored responses, it delivers while you move forward.
Paste the briefing message (step 5) and answer Claude's questions in plain language.
Expected result : A "my profile" file exists in your Claude folder.