What's new
In early 2026, Anthropic released official Claude add-ins for Microsoft 365. These bring Claude directly into the apps where most office workers spend their day — without needing to switch tabs or copy text in and out of a browser.
The add-ins are available on Claude's Pro plan (approximately A$30/month) or through organisations with an enterprise licence. If your workplace manages M365 add-ins centrally, ask your IT team whether Claude has been approved — it may already be available to you.
How to install the add-in
The process is the same for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook:
- Open the relevant Microsoft 365 app (desktop or web version)
- Go to Insert → Add-ins (or Home → Get Add-ins in Outlook)
- Search for "Claude" in the Microsoft AppSource store
- Click Add, then sign in with your Anthropic account
Once installed, Claude appears as a sidebar panel. You open it from the Home or Insert ribbon tab depending on the app.
What Claude does in Word
The Word add-in lets you work on the document you have open. You can select a section of text and ask Claude to rewrite, shorten, expand, or change the tone — without copying and pasting. You can also ask Claude to draft new sections based on an outline you've already written.
Useful things to try in Word:
- Select a paragraph → "Make this more concise"
- Select a heading → "Draft three paragraphs expanding on this point"
- "Summarise this document in five bullet points for an executive audience"
- "Check this section for inconsistencies with the earlier section on [topic]"
What Claude does in Excel
In Excel, Claude can read the data in your spreadsheet and help you work with it. It's particularly useful for understanding what a formula does, writing new formulas, and explaining data patterns in plain language.
Useful things to try in Excel:
- "Explain what this formula does in plain English"
- "Write a formula to calculate the percentage change between column B and column C"
- "Summarise the key trends in this data table"
- "What's a better way to structure this data for a pivot table?"
Claude doesn't write formulas directly into cells — it gives you the formula to copy in yourself. That's actually useful, because you can check it before it touches your data.
What Claude does in Outlook
The Outlook add-in works on the email you're reading or composing. You can ask Claude to summarise a long thread, draft a reply, or adjust the tone of something you've already written.
Other useful Outlook tasks:
- "Summarise this thread and list any action items assigned to me"
- "Rewrite my draft to be more direct — it's currently too long"
- "This email is from a client who is unhappy. Draft a response that acknowledges their concern and outlines next steps"
What to watch out for
The add-in reads the content of the document or email you're working on. Before using it on anything sensitive — confidential contracts, HR matters, personal information about colleagues — check your organisation's policy on third-party AI tools. Claude's data handling for the M365 add-ins falls under Anthropic's privacy terms, not your company's M365 data residency agreements.
When in doubt, use the add-in for drafting and structure work, not for processing documents that contain personal or commercially sensitive data.
If you use Microsoft 365, open Word or Outlook and search "Claude" in the Add-ins store. Install it and try one task — summarise the last email thread you dealt with, or ask it to tighten up a paragraph you've been staring at. It takes two minutes to install and you'll know immediately whether it's worth keeping.