Anthropic’s Claude has crossed a practical milestone: it can now generate real files—spreadsheets, slide decks, documents, and PDFs—directly from a chat. Ask for a revenue model in Excel, a client-ready PowerPoint distilled from a report, or a formatted memo, and Claude assembles the package without leaving the conversation.
What Claude can generate now
The new capability supports common office formats, including Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, and PDFs. You can feed Claude raw data, an uploaded file, or a detailed prompt, and it returns downloadable files with charts, tables, and narrative analysis.
Example scenarios include turning a CSV of transactions into a multi-tab financial model with assumptions, summary dashboards, and scenario toggles; condensing a lengthy white paper into a 12-slide deck with speaker notes; or converting a PDF into an editable outline and then a cleanly formatted report.
Anthropic positions this as a way to automate the grunt work that eats into the first draft: data cleaning, chart assembly, slide layout, and boilerplate formatting. The result is not only a file, but often a rationale for design and formula choices, which helps with review and iteration.
How it works under the hood
Anthropic says Claude performs the heavy lifting in a private computing environment where it can write code, run programs, and package outputs. In practice, that means it can execute data transformations, generate visuals, and export finished files in one flow—similar in spirit to code-interpreter experiences, but aimed squarely at document creation.
This is a clear step into agentic AI, where models plan and complete multi-step tasks on a user’s behalf. Rivals are moving in the same direction: OpenAI has agent features that browse and compile reports; Google is piloting agentic browsing prototypes; and newer browsers like Arc and Perplexity are experimenting with assistants that shop or summarize across the web. Claude’s approach is more narrowly focused on “give it inputs, get a file,” which reduces ambiguity and keeps you in control of the source materials.
Availability and how to try it
The feature is available as a preview for Claude Max, Team, and Enterprise subscribers, with rollout planned for Pro users. To enable it, go to Settings, open Features, and switch on Experimental, then toggle “Upgraded file creation and analysis.” From there, attach data or paste instructions and specify the desired output format.
Useful prompt patterns include: “Build a three-statement model with base, best, and worst cases from this CSV,” “Turn this 40-page PDF into a 10–12 slide presentation with charts,” or “Create a project tracker in Excel with conditional formatting and a burn-up chart.” Claude typically returns the finished file along with a short explanation of methods and assumptions.
Why it matters for workflows
For many teams, decks and spreadsheets are the currency of communication. Automating the first 60–80 percent of that work—gathering data, structuring sheets, and drafting slides—can compress cycles from hours to minutes. Microsoft’s Work Trend Index has reported widespread appetite for AI to offload routine tasks, and McKinsey estimates generative AI could add trillions in annual economic value by streamlining knowledge work. File-generating agents are a direct path to those gains.
Early adopters in finance, consulting, and operations will likely see the fastest payback: repeatable models, standardized reporting templates, and weekly performance packs can be spun up on demand, then refined by humans who know the business context.
Limits and good practices
As with any AI assistant, trust but verify. Check formulas, pivot logic, and chart ranges before sharing. If you need strict compliance formatting or regulatory footnotes, provide examples upfront and lock them into your prompt. For sensitive data, review your organization’s policies; Anthropic notes that conversations may be used to improve models unless users opt out in privacy settings.
The best results come from concrete instructions: supply clean source data when possible, specify the file type and audience, list the key metrics to highlight, and describe the story arc you want the slides to tell. Treat Claude as a fast junior analyst—great at structure and speed, with final judgment reserved for you.
The bottom line
Claude’s new ability to output finished spreadsheets and slide decks moves AI from conversation to deliverable. It won’t replace expertise, but it can remove the drudgery between raw inputs and a credible first draft—freeing teams to focus on insight, not formatting.