From TIMEWELL Inc. — Hamamoto
This is Hamamoto from TIMEWELL Inc.
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AI Evolution Is Relentless — and Reshaping How We Work
AI continues to evolve at a breathtaking pace, fundamentally transforming how we work and conduct business. Among the most closely watched developments is Claude, the large language model developed by Anthropic. Claude has just received a series of revolutionary new features that dramatically expand what AI can do in a business context.
The standout additions include Advanced Research (deep research), the Integrations feature, and a developer-focused tool called Claude Code.
The Advanced Research feature goes beyond simple web search — it can connect with Google Workspace, pulling information from Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Calendar to perform cross-platform search and analysis across both public and internal company data. This is a significant advantage that ChatGPT currently cannot match, and it has the potential to dramatically improve research efficiency and information utilization depth.
The Integrations feature makes it easy to connect Claude with a wide range of external tools — Salesforce, HubSpot, Jira, and more — enabling seamless business workflows with Claude at the center. Claude Code, meanwhile, lets developers write code directly in the terminal and quickly scaffold websites and applications.
In this article, we explore these groundbreaking new capabilities in detail, covering real-world use cases and what they mean for the future of business.
Claude's Revolutionary Leap Forward
Claude's Integrations feature opens a new era of multi-tool connectivity — and some are calling it a step beyond ChatGPT. The Advanced Research feature delivers powerful cross-search of both internal and external information. And for developers, Claude Code offers a compelling new way to build.
Integrations: Opening a New Era of Multi-Tool Connectivity
The Integrations feature is arguably the headline addition in this update. At its core, it enables Claude to connect with various applications and tools, sharing data bidirectionally. Where AI assistants were previously limited to publicly available web content or pre-trained datasets, Integrations unlocks access to the "closed information" stored within the tools companies use every day.
Supported tools include Jira for project management, HubSpot and Salesforce for CRM, Slack for communication, Google Drive for cloud storage, and Square for payments, among many others. This means Claude can pull sales data from HubSpot to generate an analysis report, or combine calendar information with project data to automatically prepare materials for an upcoming meeting.
Developers will find this especially compelling: according to Anthropic, a custom integration can be built in as little as 30 minutes, making it straightforward to tailor Claude to specific business workflows.
For Business Users
Most everyday business users won't interact with the Integrations feature directly — but developers and system administrators who build on it will create smarter tools that everyone benefits from.
A sales rep might receive specific advice on their next customer approach, drawn from CRM data Claude has analyzed. A project manager might get early-warning alerts about project risks, synthesized from Jira progress updates and Slack conversations. Integrations transforms Claude from a search tool into an active, proactive business assistant.
Advanced Research: The Feature That Could Surpass ChatGPT
Of all the new features, Advanced Research is the one most directly useful to everyday users. It goes beyond web search to connect with Google Workspace — Drive, Gmail, and Calendar — enabling cross-platform search and analysis of both public and personal work data. This is territory where ChatGPT does not yet compete, making it a genuine differentiator for Claude.
In terms of raw performance, Advanced Research sessions can last from 5 to 15 minutes for typical complex research, and up to 45 minutes for deeper investigations — potentially longer and more thorough than comparable tools.
The Real Power: Google Workspace Integration
The true value of Advanced Research lies in its Google Workspace connectivity. Users can have Claude analyze their Gmail threads, Google Drive documents and spreadsheets, and Google Calendar events, then use those insights to inform decisions and automate reporting.
Practical use cases include:
- Automatically generating a report summarizing past client email history, key requests, outstanding issues, and current status
- Extracting key stakeholders and decisions from project-related email threads
- Cross-analyzing multiple marketing strategy documents to surface past successes, failures, and improvement opportunities
- Rapidly locating relevant technical documentation or product reports
- Automatically compiling a briefing document for tomorrow's meeting by gathering relevant past minutes, recent email exchanges, and related materials
- Generating a detailed personal activity report for the past month based on calendar events and Gmail activity
- Drafting business trip reports and expense claims by identifying trip dates and destinations from calendar data
This capability is not just about automating routine tasks like daily or monthly reports — it also positions Claude as a personal analytics tool for objectively reviewing your own productivity.
For Developers: Claude Code and Plan Details
Beyond end-user improvements, Claude also includes exciting updates for developers. Claude Code allows users to write code in the terminal and — with simple instructions — rapidly generate websites and app scaffolding. It's available to users on the Max plan.
A standout feature of Claude Code is its ability to run locally and automatically detect files — including photos — saved on your local machine, incorporating them directly into the output. This makes it particularly well-suited for building personalized portfolio sites or product landing page prototypes.
API usage incurs a cost — one reported case cited $1.72 (roughly 250 yen) to generate a single site. Whether that's expensive or not depends on your project, but compared to the tens or hundreds of thousands of yen a professional developer might charge, it represents remarkable cost-efficiency for idea validation and early prototyping.
Claude is available in three plans for individual users:
Free Plan: Free to use, with limitations on features and usage volume.
Pro Plan: $17/month (approx. 2,500 yen). Includes Google Workspace integration (Drive, Gmail, Calendar), extended reasoning capabilities, and basic Integrations access.
Max Plan: Starting at $100/month (approx. 15,000 yen). Provides access to Advanced Research and Claude Code.
The Future of AI-Driven Work
The combination of Integrations and Advanced Research hints at a future where AI serves as the primary interface across all tools and data sources. Rather than logging directly into Salesforce or HubSpot, users will increasingly pull information and issue instructions through a chat-based interface like Claude.
Looking Ahead
As AI continues to evolve, the ability to access diverse data sources and integrate them effectively will define an AI assistant's value. With this update, Claude has opened the door to internal company data — a domain previously difficult for AI to reach — and taken a major step toward becoming a truly personal, workflow-embedded assistant.
Of course, getting the most out of these features requires choosing the right plan, crafting effective prompts, and having a clear sense of what you want AI to help you accomplish.
Claude's new features represent a substantial leap forward in workplace productivity, faster decision-making, and value creation. We encourage you to explore these capabilities and start finding ways to incorporate them into your work.
Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmURD6goz_s
