Anthropic's Cowork is a user-friendly AI-powered tool designed for file management and basic computing tasks, offering an approachable interface that's ideal for non-technical users. I put the tool through its paces to see if it delivers on its promises.
I started by giving Claude access to my desktop folder and asked it to sort my collection of screenshots into separate folders labeled by month. The process took around a minute, and after running commands, my desktop was tidied up with the screens sorted neatly into three new folders - neat!
Next, I tested Cowork's email organization capabilities by granting it access to my Gmail account and asking it to archive emails instead of deleting them. However, the bot tripped up attempting to batch archive promotional emails, so I decided to delete a thousand unread messages myself. The tool then proceeded to delete everything I asked it to do, including the unarchived emails.
Finally, I connected Claude to my Google Calendar and asked Cowork to find tickets to an evening showing of Marty Supreme at the Alamo Drafthouse near me and add them as a date night event. After the bot found the tickets but stopped short of buying them due to safety concerns, I took over and purchased the seats myself, while Cowork proceeded with adding the event to my calendar.
While there's still room for improvement in terms of precision, accuracy, and reliability, I found that Cowork delivers on its promises. Its user-friendly interface makes it an appealing option for non-technical users who want to free up their time by automating basic computing tasks like file management and email organization.
I started by giving Claude access to my desktop folder and asked it to sort my collection of screenshots into separate folders labeled by month. The process took around a minute, and after running commands, my desktop was tidied up with the screens sorted neatly into three new folders - neat!
Next, I tested Cowork's email organization capabilities by granting it access to my Gmail account and asking it to archive emails instead of deleting them. However, the bot tripped up attempting to batch archive promotional emails, so I decided to delete a thousand unread messages myself. The tool then proceeded to delete everything I asked it to do, including the unarchived emails.
Finally, I connected Claude to my Google Calendar and asked Cowork to find tickets to an evening showing of Marty Supreme at the Alamo Drafthouse near me and add them as a date night event. After the bot found the tickets but stopped short of buying them due to safety concerns, I took over and purchased the seats myself, while Cowork proceeded with adding the event to my calendar.
While there's still room for improvement in terms of precision, accuracy, and reliability, I found that Cowork delivers on its promises. Its user-friendly interface makes it an appealing option for non-technical users who want to free up their time by automating basic computing tasks like file management and email organization.