# 1.5 How both AI vendors realize it (/ai-worker-paradigm/from-chatbots-to-ai-workers/both-ai-vendors) --- type: Document title: "1.5 How both AI vendors realize it" description: "How Anthropic and OpenAI realize the change today, the differences that change a decision, and which surface to use for which job." status: stable order: 101.5 ksor: owner: team:panaversity audience: [ public ] approval: by: process:panaversity at: 2026-10-13T12:47:17Z chapter: "01" part: I expert_status: required concepts: [ "1.5" ] last_verified: 2026-10-12 review_by: 2026-11-12 sources: - id: anthropic-one-claude-post title: "Claude Cowork and chat are now one Claude (Anthropic, 16 September 2026, verified 2026-10-12)" resource: https://claude.com/blog/cowork-is-now-claude - id: anthropic-one-claude title: "Claude Cowork and chat are one Claude (Claude Help Center, verified 2026-10-12)" resource: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/16761823-claude-cowork-and-chat-are-one-claude - id: anthropic-cowork-surfaces title: "Use Claude Cowork on web, desktop, and mobile (Claude Help Center, verified 2026-10-12)" resource: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/15520349-use-claude-cowork-on-web-desktop-and-mobile - id: anthropic-cowork-architecture title: "Claude Cowork architecture overview (Claude Help Center, verified 2026-10-12)" resource: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/14479288-claude-cowork-architecture-overview - id: anthropic-builtin-browser title: "Use the built-in browser in Claude Cowork (Claude Help Center, verified 2026-10-12)" resource: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/16607400-use-the-built-in-browser-in-claude-cowork - id: anthropic-docs-ga title: "Build live dashboards and animate explainers with Claude (Anthropic, 8 October 2026, verified 2026-10-12)" resource: https://claude.com/resources/articles/dashboards-and-motion - id: anthropic-artifacts title: "What are artifacts and how do I use them? (Claude Help Center, verified 2026-10-12)" resource: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/17153992-what-are-artifacts-and-how-do-i-use-them - id: anthropic-pricing title: "Claude pricing (Anthropic, verified 2026-10-12)" resource: https://claude.com/pricing - id: openai-chatgpt-work title: "ChatGPT is now a partner for your most ambitious work (OpenAI, 9 July 2026, verified 2026-10-12)" resource: https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-for-your-most-ambitious-work/ - id: openai-dots title: "Introducing dots (OpenAI, 29 September 2026, verified 2026-10-12)" resource: https://openai.com/index/introducing-dots/ - id: openai-pro-tiers title: "About ChatGPT Pro tiers (OpenAI Help Center, verified 2026-10-12)" resource: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9793128-about-chatgpt-pro-tiers - id: anthropic-google-workspace title: "Claude now works with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides (Anthropic, 6 October 2026, verified 2026-10-13)" resource: https://claude.com/resources/articles/claude-now-works-in-google-docs-sheets-and-slides - id: openai-excel-sheets title: "ChatGPT for Excel and Google Sheets (OpenAI Help Center, verified 2026-10-13)" resource: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001063 - id: openai-work-files title: "Creating and editing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with ChatGPT Work (OpenAI Help Center, verified 2026-10-13)" resource: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001278-creating-and-editing-documents-spreadsheets-and-presentations-with-chatgpt-work generated: at: 2026-10-13T12:47:17Z by: process:panaversity trust_tier: unverified build_id: sha256:2f1e14f2a0f11dbc37eb5856ca9b7d35b4ce4894da74c3328cf61a3c17c03861 dirty: true ksor_version: 0.0.60 --- **In everyday life.** Two banks both offer mobile check deposit. One puts it inside the main app. The other has a separate deposit app. The idea is the same, the packaging differs, and you check each bank's rules before relying on them. The principle so far names no product. Here is how the two AI vendors this book covers put concepts 1.2 to 1.4 into practice today. > **Anthropic, as verified 13 October 2026.** > > **One conversation.** Claude chat and Claude Cowork are now one > conversation, with no mode to pick.[^anthropic-one-claude-post] Claude > decides whether a request needs a quick answer or a task. > > **Where tasks run.** On the Pro and Max plans, tasks run in the cloud: > they keep going after you close the laptop, and scheduled tasks run while > your computer is off.[^anthropic-one-claude] > > **The sandbox.** Each cloud session runs in its own isolated, temporary > sandbox on Anthropic's servers. It cannot reach your home or company > network, holds only short-lived session tokens, and is destroyed when the > session ends. Calls to your connected apps are made from Anthropic's > servers, outside the sandbox.[^anthropic-cowork-architecture] > > **Your computer.** Claude Desktop is the bridge to your own machine. A > cloud task can reach only the folders you connected, and only while > Desktop is open on that computer.[^anthropic-cowork-surfaces] When a task > needs a website, Desktop gives it a built-in browser in a side panel, > separate from your own browser.[^anthropic-builtin-browser] > > **Inside your files.** Claude's own editors for documents, slide decks and > designs are built into the Claude app itself — no other software needed; > the next note, on where results are kept, covers them. For the files you > already keep in Google, Claude for Google Workspace, in public beta on > paid plans, adds Claude as a sidebar inside Google Docs, Sheets and > Slides. It reads the open file, sees what you have selected, and changes > the file in place. In Docs, bigger rewrites arrive as cards you apply or > dismiss one at a time; in Sheets it writes formulas, pivot tables and > charts; in Slides it builds new slides from the deck's own layouts, then > flags overlapping or unreadable elements. Separate Docs, Sheets and > Slides connectors run the other direction: you stay in Claude, paste a > file link, and Claude creates or edits the Google file from the > chat.[^anthropic-google-workspace] > > **Where results are kept.** Your sessions and files are saved to your > account, so the same work appears on web, desktop and mobile. The Claude > Docs, Claude Slides and Claude Design editors are out of beta and on every > plan, including Free; two newer editors are in beta — Claude Dashboards, > which builds live dashboards, on paid plans, and Claude Motion, which > builds short animated explainers, on Team and Enterprise > plans.[^anthropic-docs-ga] Your team and Claude can edit the same doc, > deck or design together, in the same file.[^anthropic-docs-ga] What you > make in them is kept in the Artifacts tab.[^anthropic-artifacts] Work done > through the Google Workspace sidebar is the exception: those results live > in the Google file itself, in your Drive.[^anthropic-google-workspace] > > **Status and price.** By default, Claude asks before taking an > action.[^anthropic-one-claude-post] Cloud tasks are available on the Pro > and Max plans; on Team plans they are in beta on web and mobile, and on > Enterprise plans an owner turns them on.[^anthropic-cowork-architecture] > Handing off and scheduling tasks starts with the Pro plan, at $20 a month > billed monthly.[^anthropic-pricing] > **OpenAI, as verified 12 October 2026.** > > **Two surfaces.** OpenAI runs two surfaces next to chat: ChatGPT Work and > dots. > > **ChatGPT Work.** An agent that acts across your apps and files. It can > keep working on a project for hours, and it turns a goal into finished > slides, spreadsheets, documents and websites. It offers scheduled tasks, a > built-in browser, and local files and apps through the desktop > app.[^openai-chatgpt-work] > > **Inside your files.** The ChatGPT add-on for Microsoft Excel and Google > Sheets puts a sidebar inside the open spreadsheet that reads and edits > the live cells.[^openai-excel-sheets] Through its Google Workspace apps, > ChatGPT can also create and edit native Google Docs, Sheets and Slides > from the chat, so the file it produces is a real file in your Drive, not > an attachment in a conversation.[^openai-work-files] > > **Dots.** A dot is an always-on agent. Each dot has its own cloud computer > and browser, which you can open to check its work. With your permission, > it can also use your laptop. A dot keeps working between conversations, > connects to apps through plugins, and carries context across ChatGPT, > Slack and Teams.[^openai-dots] > > **Rules and oversight.** During what OpenAI calls proactive research, a > dot uses only read-only tools. Custom Rules set what it may do alone, what > needs approval and what is blocked. Activity View shows its > work.[^openai-dots] > > **Status and price.** Dots are available to Pro and Business Premium > users in eligible markets, with an Enterprise beta. Each user starts with > one primary dot, included in the plan.[^openai-dots] ChatGPT Pro comes in > three monthly tiers, at $100, $200 and $500.[^openai-pro-tiers] **The text box moves into the file.** Until now we have treated the text box as a separate place: you go to the AI, give it work, and carry the results back. Both vendors have closed that gap — the box now also opens inside the file you are already working in. Notice what this does to the three ideas this chapter keeps separate. When the AI edits the file you have open, *where the result is kept* stops being a trap: the result is the file, in your Drive, where you already look for it. Maria's lost spreadsheet could not have happened this way. And the suggestion cards — change proposed, human applies or dismisses — are a small preview of the working rhythm this book builds on in Chapter 3: the AI does the work, and you stay the one who approves it. **The differences that change a decision.** Five matter. 1. **Where the agentic work starts.** In Claude, any conversation can become a task. In ChatGPT, you pick ChatGPT Work or a dot by name, and a dot can start ChatGPT Work tasks for you.[^openai-dots] 2. **How continuity is provided.** A Claude task is briefed, runs, and ends. When the task is done inside a defined role with an owner, this is how a **Delegated AI Worker** does its work — a worker briefed for one defined job, with a named owner. Claude reaches recurring work through schedules and routines (Chapter 9). A dot keeps its identity and context between conversations and takes initiative. That brings it close to a **Standing AI Worker**, one with a lasting identity, ongoing responsibilities and its own initiative. Chapter 2 defines both kinds. In both cases, continuity comes from the worker's identity and context, not from one machine staying on. 3. **What you must verify yourself.** Anthropic documents its session sandbox.[^anthropic-cowork-architecture] OpenAI's launch post does not say how long a dot's computer, or the files on it, last.[^openai-dots] Check each AI vendor's help center before you rely on such details. 4. **What comes back.** Claude's agentic work is built around an outcome. A task ends in finished files, documents, slide decks or designs, made in editors inside the same Claude app on web, desktop and mobile.[^anthropic-one-claude-post] A dot is a lasting co-worker in the background. It works across your apps, reaches you in ChatGPT, Slack and Teams, and starts ChatGPT Work tasks when the job needs finished materials.[^openai-dots] 5. **What it costs to start.** Claude's tasks start on the Pro plan, at $20 a month.[^anthropic-pricing] A dot needs ChatGPT Pro, from $100 a month, or a Business Premium plan, and Enterprise plans have a beta.[^openai-pro-tiers] Prices change, so check both pricing pages on the day you decide. **Which surface for which job.** On OpenAI's side, the choice follows the ladder. Stay in **ChatGPT chat** for a question, a draft or an explanation you will read once. Start a **ChatGPT Work** task when a clear outcome should come back as a finished result, such as the invoice register. Also use ChatGPT Work when the work should run on a schedule. Use a **dot** when the work is ongoing and should continue between conversations, such as keeping track of a vendor inbox. Set its Custom Rules first, so you decide what it may do alone. On Anthropic's side the same choice happens inside one conversation, so your brief decides. Chapter 2 adds Anthropic's Space, where a team keeps the documents it edits together, and completes the comparison. **The invariant.** Products will keep changing, but on either runtime four things stay true. First, every request is routed one of two ways: to answering, or to working. Second, the work runs in an execution environment you do not fully control — a sandbox, a cloud computer, a browser that is not yours. Third, anything you want to keep must be saved to a known place, and you must understand who can reach it and how long it stays. And fourth, that durable state — your files, your artifacts, a dot's memory — is still not the company's governed record, the system your organization treats as the official truth. That last distinction is the seed of this book's architecture, and Chapter 4 makes it precise. [^anthropic-one-claude-post]: Claude Cowork and chat are now one Claude, Anthropic, 16 September 2026. [^anthropic-one-claude]: Claude Cowork and chat are one Claude, Claude Help Center, updated 16 September 2026. [^anthropic-cowork-surfaces]: Use Claude Cowork on web, desktop, and mobile, Claude Help Center. [^anthropic-cowork-architecture]: Claude Cowork architecture overview, Claude Help Center. [^anthropic-builtin-browser]: Use the built-in browser in Claude Cowork, Claude Help Center. [^anthropic-docs-ga]: Build live dashboards and animate explainers with Claude, Anthropic, 8 October 2026. [^anthropic-google-workspace]: Claude now works with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, Anthropic, 6 October 2026. [^anthropic-artifacts]: What are artifacts and how do I use them?, Claude Help Center. [^anthropic-pricing]: Claude pricing, Anthropic. [^openai-chatgpt-work]: ChatGPT is now a partner for your most ambitious work, OpenAI, 9 July 2026. [^openai-excel-sheets]: ChatGPT for Excel and Google Sheets, OpenAI Help Center. [^openai-work-files]: Creating and editing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with ChatGPT Work, OpenAI Help Center. [^openai-dots]: Introducing dots, OpenAI, 29 September 2026. [^openai-pro-tiers]: About ChatGPT Pro tiers, OpenAI Help Center.