Engineering consultancies
Turning a timesheet export into a sheet of hours and fees by project stage, with charts, and flagging stages heading over the fee budget, so project leads catch overruns mid-month rather than at invoicing.
AI news
Claude can now build spreadsheets, reports and decks inside your Google files
Anthropic
What’s new
The add-on opens Claude in a sidebar next to the file you are working on. It can read the open document, see what you have selected and change the file directly. In Sheets it writes formulas, builds pivot tables and native charts, adds tabs, and can build a report in an empty sheet from attached source files, flagging items over budget. In Slides it builds slides from the deck’s own layouts and theme, then checks for overlapping or hard-to-read elements. In Docs it can make small edits without disturbing the formatting.
Before this, Claude reached Google files through its Google Drive connector (added in March 2026), which can search, read and upload files. The sidebar inside Docs, Sheets and Slides is new. Anthropic hasn’t described what was missing before, so we present it as new rather than as something Claude couldn’t do at all.
By default Claude asks before each edit and shows it as an approval card. You can switch to accepting all edits once you trust it with a particular kind of task. For bigger rewrites in Docs, it suggests changes for you to apply or dismiss. Separate Google Docs, Sheets and Slides connectors are also in beta.
Who can use it
- Public beta on all paid Claude plans. Anthropic hasn’t given a date for general availability.
- No extra charge is stated beyond the Claude plan. Claude is available in Australia; Anthropic’s announcement doesn’t mention regions.
- Staff install it from the Google Workspace Marketplace, or an admin can deploy it to the whole domain or selected groups. On Team and Enterprise plans, an owner must turn on the connectors first.
- Claude’s access follows existing Google sharing permissions. The announcement doesn’t say where data is processed or how long it is kept.
How it fits your current systems
- Works inside the Google Docs, Sheets and Slides files and templates the business already uses. Nothing moves to a new system.
- Exports from existing software (timesheets, learning systems, rent rolls) can be dropped into a sheet for Claude to work on.
- L&V would help set up the add-on and permissions, and write reusable instructions so each report or deck comes out the same way every month.
For small businesses
Work it can take off your team’s hands
Commercial training providers
Combining learning-system exports and attendance sheets into a pivot by course and trainer, and listing learners overdue for refresher units, which otherwise means hours of manual lookups.
Property management agencies
Building each landlord’s annual portfolio review in the agency’s own Slides template from the rent roll and maintenance sheets, so property managers spend their time on the conversation, not on formatting.
What would it be worth for your team? Enter your team size and hours for a quick estimate.
Try the AI Savings and ROI calculatorBefore you rely on it
- Both the add-on and the connectors are in beta, and Anthropic says some features work only on supported set-ups.
- Check formulas and totals before they go into a client report or invoice. Keep “ask before edits” on until you have checked the results several times.
- Claude can see anything the signed-in user can open in Google Drive. Tidy up sharing permissions first, especially on client and staff files.
- Anthropic’s announcement doesn’t cover data retention or where files are processed. Read Claude’s plan terms before using it on client or personal data.
Our view: Useful for businesses that run on Google Workspace and spend hours each month building the same spreadsheets and decks. Start with internal reports, keep approvals on, and check the numbers before anything reaches a client.
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