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Anthropic Doubles Down on ‘Skills’ to Make Claude a Practical Work Tool

AI Anthropic Claude OpenAI AI Agents Large Language Models Artificial Intelligence
October 16, 2025
Viqus Verdict Logo Viqus Verdict Logo 8
Contextualization Triumph
Media Hype 7/10
Real Impact 8/10

Article Summary

Anthropic is intensifying its focus on making Claude a genuinely useful tool for professional applications with the launch of ‘Skills.’ This new feature utilizes customizable ‘folders’ containing scripts, instructions, and resources that Claude can load as needed, tailoring its responses to particular work contexts. Users can create Skills specific to their jobs, enabling Claude to effectively manage tasks like working with Excel spreadsheets, adhering to brand guidelines, or even leveraging data from specific industries. The tool’s versatility is already being tested by companies like Box, Rakuten, and Canva, highlighting its potential for streamlining workflows. Anthropic’s product lead, Brad Abrams, emphasizes that the goal isn’t simply to meet benchmarks, but to empower organizations to ‘teach Claude to do a good job in their specific context.’ This approach aligns with a broader trend within the AI industry, following similar developments from OpenAI’s AgentKit, demonstrating a shift from theoretical agentic AI to tangible, practical applications.

Key Points

  • Anthropic is introducing ‘Skills’ for Claude to tailor the AI agent’s capabilities to specific professional tasks.
  • Users can create and implement ‘Skills’ focused on tasks like data analysis, brand adherence, and integration with tools like Excel.
  • Companies like Box, Rakuten, and Canva are piloting the ‘Skills’ feature to assess its real-world effectiveness.

Why It Matters

This news is significant because it represents a crucial step beyond the hype surrounding general-purpose AI agents. Anthropic’s focus on ‘Skills’ directly addresses a key limitation – the difficulty of deploying AI agents effectively in diverse, real-world scenarios. By enabling users to customize Claude’s behavior for specific contexts, Anthropic is moving closer to delivering AI tools that genuinely solve business problems. This evolution is essential for driving wider adoption of AI in professional settings, signaling a shift from conceptual agentic AI to practical, deployable solutions. It also underscores a competitive response to OpenAI’s AgentKit.

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