Anthropic’s Claude Now Connects Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint Workflows

Anthropic is rolling out a significant update to its Claude AI assistant, introducing deep integration with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. The new add-ins allow Claude to coordinate tasks between the two applications during a single session, enabling users to move from data analysis to presentation building without switching tabs or manually copying information. A key technical feature is shared context, where Claude maintains the full conversation history and data points while moving between an open spreadsheet and presentation. This means a financial analyst can, for example, pull comparable company financials from an Excel workbook and have Claude automatically build a valuation summary into a PowerPoint pitch deck.

Another major addition is the introduction of 'Skills'—saved, reusable workflows for common tasks like auditing Excel models for formula errors or building competitive landscape slides. The update is available to paid Claude users on Mac and Windows, with add-ins installable from the Microsoft Marketplace. For enterprise clients, the tools can be routed through existing cloud infrastructure like AWS Bedrock or Microsoft Foundry to maintain compliance. However, there are limitations: Claude can only interact with currently open files and cannot create or switch files autonomously, and cross-app chat history is not saved between sessions.