What is Claude and what is it good for at work?
Claude is a conversational assistant made by Anthropic. Its product overview says it can draft and edit, analyse data, build charts and diagrams in the conversation, search the web for current information, read Word, PDF, Excel, PowerPoint and CSV files and images, and connect to other apps you use.
It suits work where you need to read carefully before you write: pulling requirements out of a long brief, comparing two versions of a policy, restructuring a report or drafting a reply that must reflect every point in a thread. When Claude produces something substantial and self-contained, such as a checklist, a document or a small tool, it can appear as an artifact beside the chat, which you can edit, revisit and share.
How do I get started with Claude?
Visit claude.ai in a browser, or install Claude Desktop for Mac or Windows or the mobile app for iOS or Android. Anthropic's getting-started page says you must be at least 18 and in a supported location. If your company has a Team or Enterprise plan, use the work invitation rather than a personal account.
Type your request in the chat box and send it. Anthropic suggests talking to Claude as you would a colleague: start simple, be specific and refine. You can switch models by clicking the model name, and the plus button or a forward slash shows more options.
A strong first prompt for Claude asks it to read before it writes: 'Here is a one-page brief. Before drafting anything, list the five things the reader must come away knowing, and ask me about anything that is unclear.' Claude's habit of asking clarifying questions is useful; answer them instead of skipping ahead.
What is a good 10-minute Claude starter exercise?
Use a fictional 30-person architecture practice, Fernhill Studio, responding to an invented tender for a small library refurbishment. Write or generate a two-page mock tender yourself so nothing real is involved.
Minute 1 to 3: create a Project called Library tender, add the mock tender as project knowledge and add one instruction: 'Quote the tender section number for every requirement you mention.' Minute 4 to 6: ask Claude for a compliance checklist of every mandatory requirement, with the section number, the evidence Fernhill would need and a column for gaps. Minute 7 to 8: ask it to turn the checklist into an artifact so it sits beside the chat as an editable document. Minute 9 to 10: spot-check five rows against the tender. If a section number is wrong or a requirement is paraphrased into something stricter, correct it in the artifact.
This exercise uses the three features that make Claude different in daily use: project knowledge, project instructions and artifacts.
How do I get better results from Claude?
Claude rewards structure and context more than clever wording. These techniques rely on features described in Anthropic's help centre.
Keep source material in a Project
Projects are self-contained workspaces with their own chat history and knowledge base. Anthropic says they are available on all plans, including Free, and paid plans can expand project knowledge capacity.
Write project instructions once
Set tone, format and rules such as 'cite the section' at project level so every chat in that project follows them.
Ask for an artifact when you will reuse it
Artifacts suit content over roughly 15 lines that stands alone and that you will edit or share. Ask Claude to create or update one by name.
Adjust effort and thinking for hard tasks
Anthropic's page says you can change the model, the effort Claude uses and whether extended thinking is on. Use more for multi-step analysis, less for quick rewrites.
Ask it to quote, not paraphrase
For anything you will rely on, ask Claude to quote the exact line from your document so you can check it in seconds.
What should I not paste into Claude, and what does Anthropic say about data?
Follow your employer's AI policy first. Without one, keep client personal data, credentials, unreleased results and confidential contracts out of a personal account, and use only material you are allowed to share.
For Free, Pro and Max accounts, Anthropic's privacy centre says chats may be used to improve Claude if you allow it through the Model Improvement setting in Privacy Settings, or if a conversation is flagged for safety review. Incognito chats, started from the ghost icon on a new chat, are not saved to history or memory and are not used for training, though Anthropic retains them for 30 days by default. For commercial products such as Claude for Work and the API, Anthropic states that by default it does not use inputs or outputs to train its models. Thumbs up or down feedback can be stored and used for training.
Where does Claude fall short?
Claude can still misread a document or state something your source does not support, so quoting and spot-checking remain essential. On the free plan, Anthropic describes a session-based usage limit that resets every five hours, which can interrupt a long working session.
Claude also knows only what you give it or what it finds through search and connected apps. It cannot judge whether your tender response is commercially wise, and it should not be the one to decide what your firm commits to.
How does Tosheo.ai teach Claude inside a role path?
Tosheo.ai uses Claude for the reading-heavy tasks of each role. An operations manager might extract actions from a supplier agreement, a customer support lead might compare an old and new returns policy and a product manager might turn interview notes into themes, each using fictional material supplied in the lesson.
Lessons last 10 to 15 minutes. The hands-on task happens in Claude and is marked against a visible rubric for accuracy of quotes, completeness and review, with specific feedback you can flag for a second look. Start with the 7-day free trial; no credit card is needed.
Sources and scope
Claude Help Center, Getting started with Claude, checked 19 October 2026 ↗
Claude Help Center, What are projects?, checked 19 October 2026 ↗
Claude Help Center, What are artifacts and how do I use them?, checked 19 October 2026 ↗
Claude Help Center, Use incognito chats, checked 19 October 2026 ↗
Anthropic Privacy Center, Is my data used for model training? (consumer), checked 19 October 2026 ↗