Anthropic announced on Thursday that their AI chatbot, Claude, will be fitted with new apps and tools, known as Integrations, including Paypal and Square. The update draws on the company’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) that connects AI with various data sources, which it is then able to access and retrieve information from.
Similarly, the company announced the introduction of a research tool, known as Advanced Research, that will allow Claude to create more comprehensive and research-backed reports. The update is not unlike those of competitors, Copilot and Gemini, who introduced a similar feature not so long ago.
With a recent report from Microsoft detailing the potential collaborations between humans and AI agents in modern businesses, this advancement opens up more questions about how AI will be positioned within companies, particularly as the new features keep coming.
New Tools and Integrations Announced for Anthropic’s AI Chatbot, Claude
Anthropic’s Claude will now be equipped to access new apps and tools, in the company’s efforts to improve the quality of the chatbot’s reports when carrying out certain tasks. On top of PayPal and Square, Claude will also have access to some Anthropic partners, including Atlassian, Zapier, Cloudflare and Intercom.
On top of new integrations, Anthropic announced in the same blog post on Thursday that Claude has been upgraded with an Advanced Research tool. The chatbot will now approach user requests by breaking them down, and investigating each one individually before producing a report in five to forty-five minutes.
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The Advanced Research tool is said to work hand-in-hand with the new integration options, giving Claude access to “hundreds” of internal and external sources before producing a detailed response.
As advanced research and analysis tools have already been implemented by the likes of Microsoft, Google and OpenAI in their own chatbots, Copilot, Gemini and ChatGPT, the move from Anthropic could certainly be seen as an attempt to keep up with the competition.
Anthropic Suggests AI Bots Run Risk of Operating in Isolation
Last December, Anthropic unveilved its Model Context Protocol (MCP) which changes where AI chatbots retrieve and utilize their data. Simply put, the protocol is an open standard to build secure, two-way connections between a data source (“MCP Clients”) and an AI powered tool, allowing the AI access to the information within that source.
This aims to widen the data AI bots have access to, and Claude’s recent Integration and Advanced Research update go hand-in-hand with MCP. The fear with AI bots, Anthropic explained in a blog post, is that they are essentially cut off from large chunks of information that could help them produce more comprehensive and useful answers.
“Even the most sophisticated models are constrained by their isolation from data – trapped behind information silos and legacy systems.” – Anthropic
While MCP sounds like a positive change for bots, it may not be integrated across competitors, such as OpenAI, who may prefer users to prioritize their data-connecting approaches rather than any external ones.
Creating Collaborative Business Teams with AI Agents
Bill Gates recently sent the Jimmy Fallon audience into nervous laughter when he claimed that in 10 years’ time, AI will remove the need for humans across most professions. However, it seems as if AI is moving towards collaborating with humans rather than replacing them.
Microsoft highlighted this notion of human-led, agent-operated companies, known as Frontier Firms, as the inevitable future of businesses. This setup sees a human manage multiple AI agents, freeing them up from emails, and instead directing their skills towards creativity and connection-building.
With only 15% of businesses reporting having never used AI in our Impact of Technology on the Workplace report, AI is already operating within the modern business, and it is with developments such as these in Claude that will allow us to see just what role AI will play in the future.
