Claude Cowork for Business Users

A hands-on crash course on using the Claude desktop app to connect your tools, organize your work, and build an AI assistant that gets smarter over time — no code, no terminal, just conversation.

All of a sudden, AI can actually do your work.

Claude Cowork is a mode inside the Claude desktop app that connects to your files, email, and calendar — and remembers how you like things done. No terminal. No code. You talk to Claude in plain English, and it acts.

This crash course shows you how to turn Cowork into a personal work assistant — one that triages your inbox, preps you for meetings, builds dashboards, drafts documents, and gets smarter every time you use it.

Who this is for:

Business professionals who want to use the Claude desktop app to get their work done — professional or personal
You do not need to be technical. You will not write any code. You will talk to Claude in English.

What you'll walk away with:

A clear understanding of what Claude Cowork can do — and how it's different from chatting with AI
Frameworks for making Claude smarter over time so it works the way you work
Real examples you can adapt to your role and industry
An honest look at the risks and how to think about mitigating them
Session recordings, setup instructions, and practice exercises

2 live classes
60 mins each

Instructors: Katie Fifer
and Suzanne Corley

Video recordings

What you’ll learn

Getting Started with Cowork

What Cowork is and how it's different from chat-based AI (and from Claude Code)
How Claude reads your files, remembers context, and gets smarter over time
Connecting your email, calendar, and other tools so Claude can pull real data

Real use cases for business

Email and calendar management - triage your inbox, manage your to-do lists, share availability
Research and web scraping - pull data from websites, compile information quickly
Document analysis - summarize, categorize, and flag across many files
Dashboard and documents - build trackers, reports, and polished docs
Scheduled tasks — recurring actions on autopilot, like daily inbox summaries or weekly report pulls

Making Claude work the way you work

Give Claude an operating manual (CLAUDE.md)
Turn repeatable workflows into one-line commands (Skills)
Connect your tools (Connectors)

Managing risk

Understanding key categories of risk
Strategies to help mitigate risk, including monitoring Claude's actions closely

Interested in a future training?

Let us know

Why Recalc

Recalc Academy trains investment professionals on technical tools – Excel modeling, financial analysis, and AI. And we don’t just teach Claude Code – we use it every day to run our own business: managing email, coordinating our team, building proposals, tracking clients, and creating the slides for this very course. This course comes directly from what we’ve learned building real workflows.

Risk Disclaimer

Recalc Academy provides education on AI tools and workflows. By registering, you acknowledge that:

You are solely responsible for how you use Claude Code and any connected tools in your own environment
Recalc Academy is not your IT department, compliance officer, or legal advisor
Recalc Academy does not provide personal technical support, security audits, or risk assessments
Recalc Academy disclaims all liability for any damages, data loss, or unintended consequences arising from your use of tools or techniques discussed in the course

FAQ

What's the difference between Claude Cowork and regular Claude?

Regular Claude is a chat window. Claude Cowork can read and write files, connect to your tools, and take actions on your behalf. It’s a fundamentally different way of working with AI.
Do I need to know how to code?

No. You interact with Claude Cowork in plain English. We’ll show you everything you need to know.
What if I can't make one of the sessions?

Recordings are included with your registration. The sessions do build on one another.
Can I use this at work?

That depends on your company’s policies. Some attendees will use personal accounts to learn or will simply watch our demos to know what’s possible. You are responsible for following your own organization’s guidelines.
What systems can Claude Cowork connect to?

Email, calendar, Slack, Google Drive, OneDrive, CRMs, databases, websites, and more – through connectors called MCPs. Everyone’s setup is different, and we’ll show you how the connection model works so you can configure your own.
Is this safe? What about data privacy?

There are real risks to using Claude Cowork. We will discuss those risks and some potential mitigations. There is no way to eliminate all the risks. You are responsible for your own use of these tools.
Will you help me set up my specific tools?

We will not do personal troubleshooting – everyone’s setup is different. We’ll provide setup guides in advance, and Claude itself is surprisingly good at troubleshooting its own installation.