Anthropic expands Cowork plugins across enterprise functions

Anthropic added a series of connectors and plug-ins to Claude Cowork with the ability for admins to create private plugin marketplaces.

The LLM player also new finance plugins for cross-app workflows to move from Excel to PowerPoint to a deliverable.

Anthropic's launch broadcast featured customers including Steve Hasker, CEO of Thomson Reuters, Sridhar Masam, CTO of NYSE, and Seth Hain, SVP of R&D for Epic. What's interesting about that customer panel is that Anthropic is an enterprise ingredient brand to those companies yet also viewed as a rival to something like Thomson Reuters Co-Counsel.

Hasker said that Anthropic is a key model for Thomson Reuters but the company is multi-model. "If Anthropic is the lead model that's fantastic," he said.

Hain said that Anthropic as a model is key, but Epic is stringing together functionality into a trust layer designed for healthcare.

That nuance is worth noting, but the focus is likely to be on Claude Cowork's expansion. Anthropic head of product Scott White noted Claude is looking to be a thinking engine.

As for the news:

• Anthropic launched Cowork and plugin updates that makes it easier to build and customize them. Claude can also orchestrate across Excel and PowerPoint.
• Admins can set up plugins from starter templates or build from scratch. Claude guides you through the setup via questions to adjust skills and connectors.
• Anthropic updated the connector experience with improvements for directory, admin controls and management. Executives during Anthropic's launch said the controls are critical since change management hasn't caught up with the technology.
• New connectors to Cowork are available from Google Workspace (Calendar, Drive, Gmail), Docusign, Apollo, Clay, Outreach, Similarweb, MSCI, LegalZoom, FactSet, WordPress, and Harvey. And companies like Slack by Salesforce, LSEG, S&P Global, Apollo, Common Room and Tribe AI.
• The new plugins from Anthropic cover HR support through the employee life cycle, design including UX copy, accessibility audits and critiques, engineering workflows and operations such as process documentation, vendor evaluations and change request tracking, brand voice, financial analysis, investment banking, equity research, private equity and wealth management.
• Finance plugins include connectors to institutional data platforms from FactSet, MSCI, S&P Global and LSEG.

Recent Anthropic and SaaS developments:

• SaaS under the microscope: How to evaluate your vendor
• Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 4.6 with computer use upgrades
• Zoho Day 2026 themes to watch: ERP, SaaS, customer value, AI, sovereignty
• Rimini Street CEO Ravin: CxOs have to lower costs, preserve autonomy over tech stack
• New tech, same enterprise playbook: OpenAI launches Frontier Alliances partner program

Anthropic: Friend or foe to SaaS?

Anthropic's broadcast on its new plugins was notable since Wall Street has portrayed the company as a SaaS killer. The reality is far more nuanced.

Kate Jensen and White cited Claude and Claude Code being used to drive SaaS products, connect to them and improve enterprise efficiencies. Jensen cited Novo Nordisk as well as Salesforce as key customers.

"We're making Cowork more enterprise ready across key areas such as how admins and power users customize plugins, how admins provision and control them, how users discover and use them, and how you connect every app to make Claude more effective," said White.

The ingredient brand and co-opetition themes were front and center with Anthropic's customer panel. The initial thought on Wall Street was that Anthropic would kill Thomson Reuters as a legal software vendor.

Yet, Thomson Reuters CEO Hasker was riffing on Anthropic as a partner. Another view was that Claude was going to blow up vertical software vendors like Epic. Again, Hain is a customer for Anthropic and maybe a foe someday.

Thomson Reuters brings agentic AI to legal workflows

Key themes from the customer panel.

• Claude is being integrated internally. Masam said the NYSE has been using Claude Code to rewire "our engineering process with coding, writing tests, legacy code bases, refactoring documentation."
• Masam added that the NYSE has also built internal AI agents based on Claude. "Claude models are particularly effective in processing large documents and applying roles," said Masam, who noted that the NYSE has built new AI-driven workflows for proxy filing, auditing, SEC filings and news classification.
• Technology is outpacing change management. Hasker said AI developments are moving faster than change management. "A general counsel's office, a law firm, a tax accounting firm or an audit firm needs to rewire the processes to be able to take advantage of the benefits that the tools provide," said Hasker. "And I think that work is ongoing, but I think it's 18 months away before that sort of change management catches up with the standard of the tool."
• Claude can drive ideas from the bottom up. Epic's Hain said AI has shifted from being more assistive to becoming more of a collaborator. "As we're shifting into 2026 particularly with Claude 4.6 and Claude Code, they're able to do code exploration, compose and have a draft of their support ticket and their response right out of the gate. Giving tools where employees can create on their own is a real way to open up opportunities," said Hain.
• Trust is critical. Hasker said that Co-Counsel has more than 1 million users and trust is a big reason. Anthropic's tools leave an audit trail, which is a big feature for regulated industries.

Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller said Anthropic is making the right enterprise moves. "Anthropic knows that it needs to get to the enterprise data - and is going for the integration of the productivity suites. That is a good first step, but the key one will be to get to the transactional data," said Mueller.