Anthropic has released big updates for its Claude AI to work better with Microsoft 365 apps. On May 8, 2026, the company announced that Claude add-ins for Excel, PowerPoint, and Word are now fully available for users.
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| Photo Credit: CNET |
Claude for Outlook is also available in public beta. These tools work on web, Windows, Mac, and even iPad for Excel. Right now, only paid users with Claude Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise plans can use them.
Users can download these add-ins directly from the Microsoft Marketplace. However, enterprise users first need approval from their admin team. In Excel, Claude can answer questions about spreadsheets, fix mistakes, fill templates, update data assumptions, and bring in information from other connected tools. It can also find trends, fix formulas, create pivot tables, and make charts using AI models like Opus 4.7, Opus 4.6, and Sonnet 4.6.
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In PowerPoint, Claude can create complete presentations from simple prompts. It can add charts, diagrams, edit content, and keep the original formatting and branding unchanged. It also helps turn data into visuals and improve existing presentations quickly.
In Word, Claude helps by summarizing long documents, rewriting sections more clearly, filling templates, editing text without changing styles, and checking comment threads to suggest edits.
One of the biggest updates is that all these apps now share conversation context. This means Claude remembers previous discussions across apps. For example, a user can analyze data in Excel, move to PowerPoint to create slides from that data, and then switch to Word to make a final report without repeating instructions or moving files manually.
Claude for Outlook, now in public beta for some paid users, improves email management. It sorts unread emails to highlight important ones, writes replies that match the user’s writing style by learning from past emails, summarizes long email threads with citations, reads attachments like documents, spreadsheets, and PDFs, and helps find available meeting times. It can also manage forwarded emails and prepare one-page summaries for upcoming meetings.
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These updates are based on previews first shown in October 2025. They are also part of Anthropic’s partnership with Microsoft, which already includes Claude models in Copilot and connections with SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. The Microsoft 365 connector allows Claude to search files, emails, and chats without needing users to upload them manually, making teamwork smoother. Free users still do not have access, and more features are expected in future updates.