[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang (황치규)] Anthropic has released an AI service suite for small businesses called Claude for Small Business.

TechCrunch reported on May 13 that the service targets small operations such as local hardware stores and coffee shops rather than big companies such as Walmart or Starbucks.

The new features are available through Claude Co-Work, a business workflow automation platform. If paid users switch on newly added conversion features, they can use automation services such as accounting processing, business insights and generative tools for advertising campaigns. Claude Co-Work can handle web searches, file management and multi-step tasks.

Claude Co-Work also integrates with commonly used services such as QuickBooks, Canva, DocuSign, HubSpot and PayPal.

Anthropic said small businesses account for 44 percent of U.S. gross domestic product and employ nearly half of the private-sector workforce, but lag large companies in adopting AI. It said many remain limited to chatbot-style use because there is a lack of tools and training tailored to how small businesses operate.

Anthropic is also running a promotional tour across 10 U.S. cities starting in Chicago. In each area, it plans to hold free AI training workshops for 100 local small business leaders.