Advanced Features: Skills, MCP & Agents

Summary

In the fourth and final session, Usama demonstrated Claude's more advanced features: Skills, MCP connectors, Deep Research, Claude for Chrome, and Office agents. Skills let you crystallise a repetitive workflow into a reusable command run with a single instruction, and come in two kinds: personal skills you create yourself and organisational skills the company provides. MCP connectors give Claude structured access to internal data and tools it could not otherwise reach.

The session also covered Deep Research, which turns complex web queries into structured reports; Claude for Chrome, which works alongside you in the browser; and Office agents, which work inside Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. These tools are powerful but consume more tokens, so it pays to plan their use. Links to install the Office agents and the Chrome extension are below.

Key takeaways

• Skills turn repetitive workflows into reusable commands; personal skills are yours, organisational skills are shared.
• Use a stronger model, such as Opus, when creating a skill.
• MCP connectors give Claude structured access to internal data and tools.
• Deep Research produces structured reports from complex web queries.
• Claude for Chrome works alongside you in the browser; Office agents work inside Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Powerful tools use more tokens, so plan when and where to use them.

Chapters

1. 00:00Skills and workflows
2. 08:59Skill controls and strategy
3. 12:26Custom agents and MCP
4. 23:59Claude for Chrome
5. 28:05Web interaction capabilities
6. 32:06Token consumption of tools
7. 43:16Putting the tools to work

Resources

• Install the Microsoft 365 Office agents Microsoft Marketplace→
• Install Claude for Chrome Chrome Web Store→
• Recording, slides, transcript & chat 8 files on Zoom→