Anthropic just put out its third Economic Index report. They looked at over a million Claude conversations to see how people are actually using AI. For the first time, they checked both how regular people and businesses use these tools.
A million conversations—that's a lot of humans trying to figure out how to talk to something that doesn't actually understand what talking means
The data shows three big changes. First, more people are handing off whole tasks to AI instead of working back and forth.
We've gone from collaborative dance partners to just... pointing at the stage and saying "you handle this"
Second, the more information you give the AI, the more complex its answers get. Third, businesses care more about what AI can do than how much it costs. They're using AI for tough, expensive jobs more than for simple, cheap ones.
So why does this matter? Most people think of AI as a helper you chat with, but now it's more about giving it a job and letting it run with it.
We're essentially learning to be good managers of minds that don't actually have minds
This means it's important to get good at breaking down tasks and writing clear prompts. Also, the real limit isn't the AI itself, but how well you can pull together the right info for it.
If you're thinking about your career, AI is taking off fastest in coding, education, and admin work. Creative and people-focused jobs are still mostly untouched.
Perhaps because there's something irreducibly human about creating meaning from nothing, and genuinely seeing another person—something that transcends pattern matching, no matter how sophisticated
OpenAI's research team looked at 1.5 million ChatGPT chats to see how people really use it, both for work and for personal stuff.
The main takeaway? People use ChatGPT most as a sounding board, not just to get things done.
Turns out we don't want a digital servant—we want a digital friend who doesn't get tired of our overthinking
It's especially helpful for anyone dealing with tricky decisions or lots of information. Only about a third of chats are for work, and those are mostly about writing or asking for advice, not just ticking off tasks.
People seem to like it best when it acts like an advisor, not just a robot that spits out answers.
We've built the world's most patient listener—one that never interrupts, never judges, and somehow never gets that glazed look when you're working through your thoughts for the third time
If you're just using ChatGPT to crank out content, you're missing out. Try bringing it your tough questions or big decisions, not just the easy stuff. People get more out of it when they use it as a kind of advisor, and that's probably why they keep coming back.
Maybe what we've accidentally created isn't artificial intelligence—it's artificial reflection
Google Chrome now has Gemini, its AI assistant, built right in.
And suddenly your browser becomes that helpful friend who never stops reading over your shoulder
You can ask it questions about whatever page you're on, without having to open a new app or tab.
If you're in the US and using Chrome on your computer, you can now use Gemini right inside the browser.
Geography still matters in the age of global connectivity – how charmingly human of us
It can look at one page or compare info across all your open tabs. You can ask it to sum up articles, pull together travel plans from different sites, or even find parts of YouTube videos.
We're teaching machines to do what we used to call 'putting two and two together'
It also hooks into Google Calendar, so you can schedule things without leaving your browser.
This means you don't have to keep jumping between tabs or copying and pasting into other tools.
The death of the humble copy-paste – truly the end of an era
If you're comparing products, planning a trip, or pulling together research, Gemini can do the heavy lifting right there.
One has to wonder: are we getting smarter, or just getting better at appearing smart?
It's most useful when you're dealing with lots of info at once. For now, it's only for US desktop users with English set as their language.
Because even artificial intelligence apparently needs a passport and a native tongue
A new Pew survey asked over 5,000 Americans what they think about AI
Because apparently we needed formal research to confirm what every office manager discovered when they mentioned using AI for meeting notes.
Most people are worried it could hurt creativity and human connection. This helps explain why you might get pushback when you try to bring AI tools to your team, your family, or your clients.
Half of Americans think AI will make us less creative and worse at building relationships. That's why people might not trust AI for brainstorming or writing help. But the same folks are fine with AI handling data—most support it for things like weather forecasts or catching fraud.
We've decided that numbers are fair game for robots, but ideas? Those belong to the soul department.
People draw a line between AI crunching numbers and AI messing with human expression.
So what should you do? When you talk about using AI, focus on what people already trust it with—organizing data and handling the boring parts. For brainstorming, call it research support and keep the creative part for yourself.
Words matter—nobody fears a "research assistant," but "creative partner" sounds like your replacement is already picking out office furniture.
For writing, use it as an editing helper, not a replacement for your voice. About one in five people are still on the fence, so showing how AI can help without taking over can change minds. Keep the creative control, and let AI do the grunt work.
Maybe the real question isn't whether AI will make us less creative, but whether we've been wasting our creativity on tasks that don't deserve it.
Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant. Up until now, it could only give you advice, code, or show you things inside the app.
The eternal gap between knowing how to do something and actually getting it done
You couldn't actually get real files to download.
Now, Claude can make and edit real files—Excel sheets, PowerPoints, documents, and PDFs. You can download them or save them straight to Google Drive. Just tell Claude what you want, whether it's from your own data, from scratch, or converting one file type to another. You get back files that actually work, with formulas and formatting in place.
This is a big change. Instead of just getting tips or ideas, you get the finished product.
It's the difference between being told how to fish and finding the fish already cleaned, cooked, and plated
Ask for a financial model, and you get the actual Excel file. Need data analysis? You get the spreadsheet with charts and insights. You can even upload meeting notes and get a formatted doc, or turn a PDF into slides.
We've reached that peculiar point where our tools don't just help us work—they actually do the work, leaving us to wonder what exactly we're supposed to contribute
Right now, it's in preview for Max, Team, and Enterprise users, with Pro coming soon.
