Most AI tools are fancy search bars. Claude connects to Slack, Google Drive, GitHub, and more — then builds on what it finds. Write documents. Analyze data. Draft entire presentations. All from one conversation.
ChatGPT put AI into everyone's hands. That mattered. But it's still mostly a chat window — you paste things in, you get answers back.
Claude, built by Anthropic, takes a different bet. Instead of being the smartest thing in a box, it tries to be the most useful thing connected to your work.
Strong general-purpose chat. You bring the context — copy-paste from documents, describe your situation, attach screenshots.
Connects directly to your tools. Reads your Slack threads, browses your Google Docs, then creates new documents, spreadsheets, and presentations inside the conversation.
Everything Claude does falls into three categories. Here's the mental map before we go deeper.
Live links to apps like Slack, Google Drive, and Notion so Claude can read and act on your real data.
Claude remembers your preferences, past conversations, and context so it gets better the more you use it.
Built-in abilities to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations — plus partner integrations.
It's 2pm. A teammate drops a question in Slack about a project plan that lives in Google Drive. Before Claude, you'd open both apps, read the thread, find the doc, then type out an answer.
Now you ask Claude.
It reads the Slack thread, pulls up the Google Doc, cross-references the two, and drafts a response. One conversation, two tools, ten seconds.
Skills are where Claude goes from assistant to workhorse. Think about the tasks you repeat every week — status updates, pipeline reports, Monday-morning summaries. Skills turn those into one-prompt automations.
Ask once, get a polished document, spreadsheet, or slide deck. Ask the same way next Monday and Claude remembers the format, the audience, and the level of detail you like.
Partner skills extend this further. Figma, Notion, and others plug in so Claude can work directly in the tools you already use.
Write memos, reports, blog posts. Formatted and ready to share.
Excel files with formulas, charts, and structured data.
PowerPoint decks with layouts, bullet points, and speaker notes.
Figma, Notion, and a growing ecosystem of third-party integrations.
Monday you tell Claude you prefer bullet points over paragraphs. Wednesday you start a new conversation. Claude already knows.
This sounds small. It isn't. The difference between a tool that forgets you every session and one that accumulates context is the difference between a temp worker and a colleague.
Two toggles control it.
Everything above sounds useful in theory. Here's how to make it real.
Go to claude.ai and sign in.
Click your avatar > Settings > Profile. Tell Claude your name, role, and what kind of work you do. This seeds memory from day one.
Settings > Memory. Flip both toggles on. Claude will start learning your preferences.
Settings > Connectors. Start with Google Drive and Slack — they give Claude the most context about your work.
The model selector is at the top of each conversation. Sonnet is the default — best balance of speed and quality. More on models below.
Don't test with "tell me a joke." Bring a real piece of work: summarize a doc, draft an email, analyze a spreadsheet. That's where you'll feel the difference.
Claude isn't one model. It's a family. Think of them like gears on a bike — you shift based on the terrain.
Near-instant responses. Use it for simple questions, rewording text, quick lookups, brainstorming lists. It won't write your thesis, but it'll answer "what's the word for..." before you finish the thought.
Best for: rapid-fire tasks, simple Q&A, when speed matters more than depth.
The default for a reason. Sonnet handles most work tasks well: writing, analysis, coding, summarization. Fast enough that it doesn't feel slow, smart enough that it rarely misses the mark.
Best for: everyday work, writing drafts, code generation, document analysis.
For hard problems. Opus takes longer but catches nuances the other models miss — subtle logical errors, complex multi-step reasoning, tasks where getting it right matters more than getting it fast.
Best for: complex analysis, critical writing, nuanced reasoning, when accuracy is non-negotiable.
Some conversations are one-offs. But when you keep coming back to the same type of task — writing blog posts, reviewing contracts, planning sprints — Projects give Claude persistent context.
A Project is a folder with instructions. Every conversation inside it inherits those instructions automatically. Set it up once, benefit forever.
Instructions: "Write in a conversational, direct tone. Keep paragraphs to 2-3 sentences. Use subheadings every 200 words. Target audience: product managers who are technical but not engineers."
Reference files: style-guide.pdf, past-posts-examples.md
Every conversation in this project automatically follows the style guide and matches the voice of previous posts — without re-explaining each time.
The gap between a mediocre prompt and a great one is enormous. These aren't tricks — they're habits that compound.
Start with your goal, then ask: "What information do you need from me to do this well?" Claude will ask clarifying questions that produce better results than your original prompt would have.
Instead of saying "write it casually," paste an example of casual writing and say "match this tone." Examples beat adjectives every time.
If the first response is 70% right, say what's wrong and ask for a revision. Claude improves within a conversation faster than starting fresh.
"You're an experienced copywriter reviewing a junior's work." Roles activate different patterns of knowledge. Be specific about the expertise level.
Claude handles PDFs, images, spreadsheets, and code files. Dragging in the actual document beats describing it every time. Upload first, then ask.
Once you've got a rhythm with Claude, there's more to explore. Cowork lets Claude work alongside you in the background — researching, drafting, preparing while you focus on something else. Claude Code is a terminal-based tool for developers that can write, test, and ship code.