“Has AI changed your work?” When asked this, to be honest, many people can't find the words to answer...
It's a common AI experience: you feel like your work has become more efficient, but your actual output hasn't changed that much. You feel 10x more efficient, but looking at the actual output, it's only about 1.1x.
Furthermore, the cost of getting used to a new workflow is often greater than the benefits of efficiency, which is honestly exhausting.
This is a very common occurrence in AI implementation.
Have you had this experience while using Claude? There are various reasons, but today I will explain it from the perspective of how to give AI "hands and feet" to increase the degree of efficiency.
- Copying Claude's answers and pasting them into another tool. Repeating this every day.
- Even though you're using AI, copy-pasting and tab-switching haven't decreased at all.
- People around you are starting to say "AI changed my work," but you're just doing the same thing over and over.
- When asked, "It's been six months since you started using AI. What has changed in your work?" you can't answer.
By reading this article to the end, you will understand how to connect Claude to your work tools with "50 hands and feet," and you'll be able to choose the first connection point that suits your work.
I'm sharing this because an article written by angel investor Khairallah AL-Awady was quite educational.
Before we start, I have just two requests:
- Save this article and set aside 30 minutes during the holidays.
- Share it with people who use Claude.
I will break down the content for business people by "work scene."
Original post here:
https://x.com/eng_khairallah1/status/2049784265613967730
Most People Keep Claude "Isolated"
Chat with Claude. Copy the answer. Paste it into another tool.
Right now, most people stop at this way of using Claude. If you ask a question, a clever answer comes back. But to "use" that answer, you ultimately have to copy and paste it yourself.
But that has changed.
Claude can now connect directly with work tools such as email, calendars, Slack, spreadsheets, and cloud storage.
There are two main ways to connect.
■ Connectors (One-click type)
Just flip a switch in the Claude Desktop settings. Tools you use daily like Gmail, Google Drive, and Slack can be connected this way.
■ MCP (Setup type)
MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, a connection standard for linking Claude with external tools. Even tools not covered by Connectors can become Claude's hands and feet through MCP.
In this article, I call these two together "Claude's hands and feet."
Personally, I organize it like this: if Claude Code's Skills are "memory," then MCP is "action power."
Claude with only memory is just a chatbot. But Claude with both memory and hands and feet can already be called an AI agent.
Every time you connect a hand or foot, Claude transforms from a "box that answers when asked" into a "partner that moves on its own."
Just Connecting These 5 Will Change 90% of Knowledge Work
You don't need to connect all 50 hands and feet at once.
The original author also recommends starting with just these five. These five cover 90% of knowledge work.
■ Gmail + Google Calendar
Connecting email and schedule turns every morning's "checking work" into a single sentence conversation with Claude.
■ Google Drive
The effort of uploading files one by one disappears. Claude can access files directly.
■ Slack or Microsoft Teams
The time spent chasing unread messages in chat tools is drastically reduced. Claude automatically picks up action items.
■ Tavily
Gives Claude real-time internet search capabilities. No more opening 10 tabs in your browser.
■ Notion or Google Sheets
Direct access to internal databases and spreadsheets. The work of searching for and transcribing information disappears.
Experience "one copy-paste disappearing" with these five first. You can choose the remaining 45 from the scene-specific guide below as needed.
Morning "Checking and Transcribing" Disappears
Checking emails, drafting replies, checking schedules. Are you spending 30 minutes every morning on "checking" rather than "judging"?
Those 30 minutes completely disappear with these three extensions.
1. Gmail
It reads your morning inbox, picks up emails that need a reply, and even creates drafts. The original article introduces this as the "most time-saving connection for the majority." It's a connector, so it can be enabled with one click.
2. Google Calendar
Reading schedules, detecting conflicts, and preparing meeting materials. Combined with Gmail, your morning work changes to just "asking Claude for today's schedule."
3. Microsoft 365
Access Outlook email, SharePoint, and OneDrive with a single connector. If you work in a Microsoft environment, use this instead of Gmail+Calendar.
Imagine the reality:
Before connecting: Open email app → Check unreads → Open calendar → Check today's schedule → Back to email → Draft reply → Send
After connecting: Ask Claude, "Tell me which of today's emails need action and what my schedule is." That's it.
With just three extensions, morning checking work disappears, and only judgment remains.
Chat and Task "Relaying and Tracking" Disappears
Chasing unread Slack messages, updating task boards, searching for the right Wiki page.
How many hours do you spend on "management work" alone each day?
4. Slack
Reading channels, searching history, and automatically extracting action items. For those drowning in Slack messages, this is the easiest extension to feel the effect of. It's a one-click connector.
5. Notion
Directly reads workspace pages and databases. The effort of opening the internal Wiki to search disappears. This is also a connector.
6. Task Master AI
Input a proposal or memo, and it automatically structures tasks with dependencies. Scattered To-Dos in your head turn into an executable pipeline.
7. Linear
Direct integration with the project management tool Linear. You can operate issue reading, status updates, and task creation from Claude. I highly recommend this.
8. Jira
Project management for enterprises. Reading and updating tickets, and searching across projects. For those in large companies using Jira.
9. Confluence
Corporate Wiki. Claude directly searches the team's knowledge base to pull out necessary information.
10. Discord
Reading and searching Discord server messages. For those running communities.
11. Microsoft Teams
Reading channels, searching conversations, and extracting action items. For team collaboration in Microsoft environments.
12. Telegram
Claude centrally manages interactions with overseas teams and communities. The effort of opening a separate app to check messages disappears.
That's 9 extensions right here.
Even if you use multiple chat tools like Slack, Teams, Discord, and Telegram, Claude aggregates all channel information in one place. The search time spent wondering "Where was that thing someone said in that channel?" completely disappears.
Research Becomes Just "Asking Claude"
You have something to look up. Search in a browser. Open 10 tabs. Manually organize the necessary information.
Have you ever felt that while "researching" is your job, the way you research is the most inefficient part?
13. Tavily
Gives Claude real-time internet search capabilities. A dedicated research tool with four functions: search, data extraction, site crawling, and sitemap creation. The original article introduces it as the "MCP everyone should install first."
14. Context7
A mechanism where Claude automatically checks the latest information on researched tools or systems. It prevents inaccurate answers based on old information.
15. Twilio
Integration of SMS and voice calls. Reading received messages and drafting replies becomes possible. For those interacting with customers via phone or SMS.
16. Intercom
Connects with customer support message platforms. Detects patterns in support conversations and automatically generates reply drafts.
17. Zendesk
Reads, categorizes, and drafts replies for help desk tickets. It even automatically identifies trends in common inquiries.
18. HubSpot
Connects with CRM tools. Instantly refers to customer info, deal status, and company info to generate sales reports or pipeline analysis.
19. Salesforce
CRM for enterprises. From referring to deals, contacts, and account info to sales forecasting and pipeline reviews.
20. Playwright
Automated website operation. Automates page viewing, form input, and data extraction. If you have tasks collecting information from the same site regularly, this eliminates them.
21. Stealth Browser
More advanced web automation. A browser automation tool specialized for research.
22. Firecrawl
Automatically converts website content into a format Claude can easily process. Crawls entire sites to extract structured data.
With these 10 extensions, most of the work of "opening 10 tabs to research" disappears. Internet searches, checking customer data, and gathering info from websites—all you have to do is ask Claude.
Claude is No Longer Just a "Box that Answers When Asked"
So far, we've connected over 22 extensions.
Reading emails. Picking up action items from chat. Searching the web. Checking customer data.
Claude can now do all of these things itself.
From a "box that answers when asked" to a "partner that goes to get information." From here on, we will give that partner even more hands and feet.
Data "Transcription and Aggregation" Disappears
Pick up data from a spreadsheet, summarize it in another sheet, and make a graph.
How many hours do you spend every week on this "data transcription"?
23. Google Sheets
Directly pull and analyze spreadsheet data without CSV downloads. One-click connector.
24. Postgres
Connect directly to a PostgreSQL database. Even without writing SQL yourself, just ask Claude in plain language, "Show me last month's sales by department," and the data comes back.
25. Supabase
Connects with the platform integrating database, auth, and storage. Organizations using Supabase can access all functions with this one tool.
26. BigQuery
Connect to Google's data warehouse. Even with millions of rows of data, Claude automatically finds data and answers from natural language questions.
27. Snowflake
Cloud data platform. Automates large-scale data analysis and report generation.
28. MongoDB
Connects with document-oriented databases. Enables collection analysis and insight generation.
29. Airtable
A hybrid tool of spreadsheet and database. Can read bases, refer to records, and update fields. Popular with operations teams.
30. Google Analytics
Directly refer to website traffic data, user behavior, and performance reports. "Tell me last month's PV" is enough.
31. Mixpanel
Product user behavior analysis. Claude automatically generates funnel analysis and cohort reports.
Database tools (Postgres, Supabase, BigQuery, Snowflake, MongoDB) connect Claude directly to your company's database. The time spent waiting for the technical team to "please pull the data" disappears, and you can check the data yourself.
When aggregation work disappears, "time to collect numbers" turns into "time to think about the meaning of numbers." This is exactly what it means to focus on judgment rather than tasks.
File "Conversion and Uploading" Completely Disappears
Open a PDF, copy the necessary parts, and paste them into Word.
File "format conversion" shouldn't be work, but before you know it, it takes up quite a bit of time, doesn't it?
32. Google Drive
Direct access to documents, spreadsheets, and files. No need to upload one by one. One-click connector.
33. OneDrive
Microsoft's cloud storage. The friction of downloading and uploading disappears. Connector supported.
34. SharePoint
Corporate document management. Direct access to shared documents and libraries. Connector supported.
35. Google Docs
Refer to and analyze Google Docs directly without exporting. Connector supported.
36. Markdownify
Automatically convert PDFs, images, and audio to text. Whatever the file format, it turns it into a form Claude can process.
37. Excel
Even without the Microsoft Excel app, you can directly read/write, format, and calculate Excel files.
38. Dropbox
Claude reads files saved in Dropbox directly without downloading. The time spent searching "Where was that file?" disappears.
39. Box
Corporate file sharing. Refer to documents shared within the company without downloading.
With 8 extensions, the cycle of "download → convert → upload" completely disappears.
Claude can directly access any cloud storage and process PDFs, Excels, or images. Format differences will no longer stop your progress.
Sharing with the Tech Team Eliminates Development "Checking Work"
The sections so far were about daily tasks relevant to everyone regardless of job type.
This section is a bit different. If your company has web services or apps, this is worth sharing with the technical team. If you don't have a development team, you can move to the next section.
A failure occurs. Check logs. Identify the cause. Fix it. Deploy. Confirm.
In this series of "checking work," the only thing a human should do is judge "what to fix." The rest can all be automated with Claude's extensions.
40. GitHub
Reading repositories where code is managed, searching issues, reviewing pull requests, and understanding the codebase. The first extension a dev team should connect.
41. Sentry
Error monitoring tool. Claude automatically reads error reports, detects patterns, and suggests fixes.
42. Docker
Container management. Inspecting running containers, reading logs, and debugging deployment issues.
43. Vercel
Deployment platform. Check deployment status, refer to build logs, and manage environment variables.
44. AWS
Connect to AWS services like S3, CloudWatch, and DynamoDB. Monitor cloud infrastructure directly from Claude.
45. Cloudflare
CDN and edge computing. Supports analytics, DNS settings, and deployment management.
46. GitLab
Alternative to GitHub. Manage repositories, pipelines, merge requests, and issues.
47. npm
Search and inspect packages. Automate dependency research and vulnerability checks.
48. Codebase Memory
A mechanism to remember knowledge of codebase structure and architecture across sessions. Claude won't forget the development context.
Pay attention to number 48, Codebase Memory.
At the beginning, I organized it as "Skills = memory, MCP = action power." Codebase Memory is "memory" itself for dev teams. Claude, with both memory and action power, begins to function as an AI agent on the development front.
You Can Create the "Hands and Feet" Missing from the 50
For those who read this and thought, "My business tool isn't there..."
There is a mechanism to create your own "hands and feet."
49. FastMCP
A tool to build your own MCP server with minimal code. If you want to connect your company's unique tools or business systems with Claude, you can ask an engineer to "create this connection with FastMCP." The possibility of connecting with any tool opens up.
50. MCPHub
When your extensions increase to more than 10, management becomes difficult. MCPHub is a tool to manage multiple MCPs together. It's the organizer when your extensions increase.
50 is just the starting line. With FastMCP, even your company's unique tools can become Claude's hands and feet. There is no upper limit to the possibilities.
Of course, there are advanced methods like setting up a server from scratch and finishing it for your own use.
Summary
- Connecting "hands and feet" (Connectors and MCP) to Claude eliminates copy-pasting, tab-switching, and manual transcription.
- Connecting just 5 first covers 90% of knowledge work.
- "Checking and transcribing" for email and schedule management is automated (Gmail / Calendar / M365).
- "Tracking and updating" for team collaboration like Slack, Teams, and task boards is aggregated in one place.
- "Aggregation and transcription" for spreadsheets and DBs in data analysis is done just by asking Claude.
- The effort of uploading, downloading, and format conversion of files completely disappears.
- As the number of extensions increases, Claude evolves from a "chatbot" to an "AI agent."
The original author says this:
"The more you connect, the less you copy-paste. The less you copy-paste, the more time you have for truly important work."
Use the time spent on tasks for judgment and thinking. These 50 extensions are the connection techniques for that purpose.
For those who found this article even slightly helpful:
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