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Welcome to the Friday edition of our newsletter, which we are newly branding “In the Classroom with Innovation Profs.” The content remains the same … we spend Friday’s going deeper into tools and trends related to generative AI (and Tuesdays sharing news updates). This week Professor Snider dives into Claude Cowork…

🌭 AI Lunch Club returns

Our AI Lunch Club series returns this spring with four FREE virtual events to help you better understand generative AI tools. Click each link to get more info and to sign up:

• Feb. 9 - Get Started with Generative AI

• Feb. 16 - Google Gemini, Nano Banana and NotebookLM

• Feb. 23 - Building Microsoft Copilot Agents

• March 4 - Vibe coding with Claude, ChatGPT and Lovable

These events are offered free thanks to a sponsorship from technology and management consultancy, Lean TECHniques.

An intro to Claude Cowork

Claude Code has taken the AI world by storm at the start of 2026 for it’s ability to, well, write really accurate code really fast. A Google engineer said Claude Code built in an hour what it took her team a full year to build.

This means little to those of us who don’t write code. But we took notice when we started to hear people were using Claude Code to do other things - like keep a plant alive, knit and control their lights.

Inspired by this, Anthropic (the company behind Claude) decided to use Claude Code to build Claude Cowork, which is basically Claude Code for the rest of us. Claude Cowork can access a folder of your choosing on your computer and then read, edit, or create files in that folder. It’s an AI agent that you can assign tasks, and it will carry them out on your computer.

Continue reading below to learn how you can get access to Claude Cowork and what you can do with the tool.

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Accessing Cowork

You'll need the Claude app on macOS to access Cowork. And you'll need to be either a Claude Pro or Max subscriber. This is a research preview, so it is an experimental tool. Users are encouraged to try new things to see exactly what it can do. Expect improvements (and a Windows version) in the future.

Click on Cowork in the app’s upper-left corner to get started.

What you can do with Cowork

Instead of just responding to prompts, Cowork gets access to a folder on your computer and can read, create, edit, and organize files inside it. You give it a task, and Claude plans the work and carries it out step by step, updating you as it goes. You can use it for reorganizing files, turning screenshots into spreadsheets, or drafting reports from messy notes.

The big difference from a regular chat conversations is agency. In Cowork, Claude does not wait for constant instructions. Once you set the goal, it independently works through the task, much like Claude Code does for developers, but in a more approachable way for everyday work.

Some examples of what it can do:

• Read, organize, rename, and move files in a folder you authorize.

• Create subfolders and sort files by type, date, or pattern you describe.

• Convert file formats (for example from many images into one compressed PDF).

• Pull data from a set of documents and build reports or summaries.

• Draft or finish documents, spreadsheets, presentations, reports, or notes based on what’s already in your files.

• Compile research and turn a pile of notes into a polished summary or structured output.

Cowork also becomes more powerful when connected to other tools. It can use existing connectors, specialized document and presentation skills, and even browser access through Chrome to handle more complex, multi-step tasks.

Overall, Cowork is designed to feel less like chatting and more like delegating. You do not have to keep re-explaining context, manually format outputs, or wait for one task to finish before starting another. You can queue up work and let Claude handle it in parallel, like leaving notes for a trusted colleague and coming back to finished results.

I tried it!

I was able to use Cowork in a few different ways:

• I had it rename a folder full of screenshots based on what it saw on the images.

• I had it access files in a folder and turn the information in them into a Powerpoint presentation that it saved in the same folder.

• Then I had it create a worksheet (it made a Word doc) to go with a training I was giving.

• Finally, I wondered if it could handle code. I asked Cowork to create a simple iPhone interval timer app, something I had no experience doing before and had no idea where to even start to create. 15 minute later I had this working app on my phone:

Cowork’s ability to do things using my computer without my oversight was eye-opening. 2026 is definitely looking like the year of agentic AI.

I will continue to test what I can do with Cowork. If you are doing the same, send us an email and let us know what you’ve built.