Claude Cowork Goes Cloud-Based as Anthropic Expands AI Agent Across Devices

Anthropic has expanded its Claude Cowork AI agent to the cloud, allowing users to access the tool across web, mobile, and desktop devices while enabling background task execution even when their primary device is offline. The update is initially available in beta for Max subscribers, with broader availability planned in the coming weeks.

Cowork was introduced in January as an AI agent designed for nontechnical users, automating multistep tasks such as organizing information, scheduling work, and handling projects by drawing on a user’s files, folders, and connected applications. Previously, the feature was limited to specific devices that had to remain open and connected for tasks to finish, and users could not access the same Cowork session across multiple devices.

With the cloud-based version, users can begin work on one device, receive updates from another, and return to completed results later without keeping a computer running. Anthropic said scheduled tasks, including drafting emails, can continue in the background, although Claude will still require users to review and approve actions before sending or finalizing them.

The company is also combining Claude chat and Cowork into a single workspace, giving both interfaces access to the same files and allowing projects and related content to be managed together.

The expansion comes as AI companies continue building agent-based products that go beyond answering questions by completing longer, multistep workflows. Anthropic’s Cowork competes with similar offerings from Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, as companies seek to make AI assistants a more persistent part of everyday work.

Anthropic said the desktop application will remain the primary environment for work requiring access to local files and browsers, while the new web and mobile experience broadens access to users who have not installed the desktop app.

To coincide with the launch, Anthropic is extending Cowork’s increased usage limits through Aug. 5.

The company also released usage data from a sample of 1.2 million anonymized and aggregated Cowork sessions across more than 600,000 organizations during the final two weeks of May. According to Anthropic, business process operations accounted for 33.4% of Cowork activity, including tasks such as consolidating updates into reports, creating onboarding checklists, and reconciling spreadsheets. Content creation and copywriting represented 16.4% of usage, while software development accounted for 8.7%.

“While coding is still—understandably—one of the uses of AI that gets the most attention, the use of AI for everyday business work is on the rise, and the kinds of tasks people are finding it most helpful for are coming into focus,” Anthropic said in a blog post. “Our goal is to make this a reference point for people who are figuring out how to integrate AI products into their daily work, and to show where value is most concentrated.”

This analysis is based on reporting from NBC News.

Image courtesy of Anthropic.

This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.