Anthropic Connects More Apps to Claude - AI Integration

Anthropic Enhances Claude with New Integrations and Advanced Research Capabilities

On Thursday, Anthropic unveiled a novel method for linking applications and tools to its AI chatbot, Claude. Simultaneously, an expanded “deep research” functionality was introduced, enabling Claude to access the web, enterprise accounts, and various other data sources.

New Features Available in Beta

The newly launched app connection feature, known as Integrations, and the enhanced deep research tool, titled Advanced Research, are currently in beta testing. Access is granted to subscribers of Anthropic’s Claude Max, Team, and Enterprise plans, with availability soon extending to Pro users.

Furthermore, Anthropic has increased the rate limits for its AI-powered coding assistant, Claude Code, specifically for Max plan customers.

Competition and Revenue Goals

Both Integrations and Advanced Research represent Anthropic’s ongoing efforts to remain competitive with other leading chatbots, such as Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Anthropic is aiming for a substantial revenue of $34.5 billion by 2027. While progress is being made, significant growth is still required, as the company’s annualized revenue stood at approximately $1.4 billion in early March.

Understanding Integrations

Integrations builds upon the company’s MCP (Managed Communication Protocol) protocol. This protocol allows AI models to retrieve data from business tools, content repositories, and application development environments to effectively complete tasks.

By leveraging MCP, Integrations empowers developers to create and host app servers. These servers augment Claude’s capabilities and allow users to seamlessly connect to and utilize them.

“Connecting your tools to Claude provides it with a thorough understanding of your work – including project histories, task statuses, and organizational knowledge – and enables it to perform actions across various platforms,” explained Anthropic in a recent blog post.

Available Integrations

Currently, a range of Integrations are available from Anthropic’s partners. These include Atlassian, Zapier, Cloudflare, Intercom, Square, and PayPal. Each integration expands Claude’s functionality.

For instance, the Atlassian Integration allows Claude to summarize and generate pages within Atlassian’s Confluence workplace software. The Zapier Integration, conversely, enables Claude to connect to Zapier’s app automation workflows.

Advanced Research: Comprehensive Reports

The new Advanced Research feature allows Claude to analyze “hundreds” of internal and external sources. This process delivers more detailed reports on a given topic within a timeframe of five to 45 minutes.

Advanced Research can utilize Claude’s expanded connectors to search across Integrations. Additionally, when used with the Claude Desktop app on macOS or Windows, it can access MCP-connected local drives.

“With its enhanced ability to conduct complex research, activated by toggling the Research button, Claude dissects your request into smaller components, thoroughly investigating each before compiling a comprehensive report,” Anthropic stated in its blog post.

“When Claude incorporates information from sources, it provides clear citations that directly link to the original material.”

The Rise of Deep Research Tools

A multitude of deep research tools have recently been launched across various chatbots, including Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, and xAI’s Grok. These tools are powered by “reasoning” AI models.

These models possess the capacity to analyze problems and verify information – skills crucial for conducting thorough research on any subject.

Evolution of Anthropic’s Research Tool

Anthropic’s Research tool was previously recognized for its speed, compiling reports in approximately one minute. However, the results were often less in-depth, partly due to the absence of a reasoning model.