Anthropic is rolling out new features for its AI assistant Claude, including expanded research capabilities and support for external integrations with enterprise tools.
Users can now link Claude to services like Jira, Zapier, and Intercom through a system called the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Anthropic first introduced MCP in November 2024, but it was originally limited to local desktop use. The latest update extends that support to web-based tools, allowing Claude to access and interact with enterprise systems over the internet.
The first wave of integrations includes ten services: Jira, Confluence, Zapier, Cloudflare, Intercom, Asana, Square, Sentry, PayPal, Linear, and Plaid. Anthropic says more are on the way, including support for Stripe and GitLab. Developers can also build their own integrations, which the company says can be deployed in about 30 minutes.
Once connected, Claude gains access to company-specific data like task statuses, project timelines, and internal documentation. That added context helps the model respond more effectively to user requests.
Claude can also handle multi-step tasks that span several tools. For example, it can pull in information from Jira and Confluence to summarize tickets or documentation, or fetch CRM data from HubSpot and use calendar info to generate meeting notes.
Research feature now includes citations and internal data
Claude's research tool is also getting an upgrade. It can now break down complex queries into subtasks and generate reports using both public and internal sources. Depending on the size of the request, answers can take anywhere from five to 45 minutes.
The feature used to be limited to web search and Google Workspace. With the new integrations, Claude can now search across all connected enterprise apps. The results come with direct links to the original sources, which should make it easier to verify the information.
The new features are available in beta for users on Claude’s Max, Team, and Enterprise plans. Support for the Pro plan is expected to follow soon. Web search is already live for all paid Claude.ai accounts.
