Anthropic Consolidates Specialized Apps Into One Unified Claude Platform

Anthropic is streamlining its AI offerings by consolidating specialized apps into a unified Claude platform, according to a company blog post published on September 16. Users no longer need to choose between Claude Cowork and chat for a specific task, as "one Claude" will handle such decisions. The rollout of this unified platform will commence on Pro and Max plans within the coming weeks, expanding to Team and Free plans soon, and finally to Enterprise plans following prior notice to administrators.

In addition to this consolidation, Anthropic has introduced Claude Docs, which assists users in writing documents, Claude Slides for drafting presentation slides, and Claude Design, now integrated into conversations. Currently, these features are in beta on paid plans. Those utilizing Claude Design separately can continue to do so without any changes.

The decision to merge Cowork and Design into "one Claude" stemmed from user feedback indicating difficulty in determining the appropriate tool for a task and inconsistencies in project continuity between tools. Anthropic stated that its new unified approach allows Claude to determine the necessary task requirements, incorporating available context, skills, and connectors.

The strategy mirrors a similar approach taken by OpenAI, which recently overhauled its ChatGPT into a super app, integrating AI agents, coding tools, and third-party services. OpenAI's Thibault Sottiaux, overseeing core products and platforms, expressed the goal of creating a personalized AI agent capable of assisting with various aspects of users' lives, both personally and professionally.

OpenAI introduced a new agent in ChatGPT, tailored for more complex work tasks, capable of executing actions across user apps and files, managing projects over extended periods, and generating various materials like sheets, slides, documents, web apps, and more.