The tech industry continues to focus on advancements in artificial intelligence, and Anthropic is experiencing a great moment. The company, creator of Claude, is positioning itself increasingly strongly against its competitors, and Cat Wu, its product head for Claude Code and Cowork, is one of the key figures in that growth.
Wu, who joined Anthropic in August 2024, led the development that transformed Claude from an informational chatbot into a powerful coding tool and beyond. Along with Boris Cherny, whom many compare to the duo Batman and Robin, she drove new functionalities that today make more and more companies prefer Claude.
In an interview during the second annual edition of the Code with Claude conference in San Francisco, Wu shared her vision on product strategy and the future of AI usage.
Focusing on the technological frontier
According to Wu, Anthropic's main strategy is to stay on the exponential curve of AI advancement. “We design to stay on the frontier,” she explained, clarifying that they do not stop to look too much at competitors because that can delay execution.
The company launched at least six models last year and has almost matched that number this year. Wu is confident that this pace will be maintained, although deployments may vary to ensure safety. She recalled the case of Glasswing, where access to the Mythos cybersecurity model was limited to a select group of companies for fear it could be used maliciously.
The executive also spoke about the role of humans in a world filled with AI agents. “It’s very difficult to manage agents if you don’t know how to do the work yourself,” she noted. Managers will need to continue being experts in their area to review, debug, and understand why an agent made certain decisions.
AI agents and the future of work
Wu believes that, although agents will allow for the reduction of tedious tasks, they will not completely replace people. On the contrary, the idea is that everyone can do much more in their day. “We all have a part of our job that is routine and boring,” she said, using responding to emails as an example. The hope is that AI will take care of that and leave time to create and build interesting things.
Regarding management, she compared handling agents to managing human teams: one must understand poorly specified instructions or interpretation errors. It’s a new skill that many will have to learn.
What excites Wu and her team the most for the next six months is proactivity. We are moving from synchronous interactions to automated routines, such as responding to support tickets, and the next step is for Claude to understand what you are working on and configure those automations for you.
In this way, AI will not only respond when asked, but will anticipate needs before the user identifies them. This evolution promises to radically change how we interact with artificial intelligence tools in our daily lives.
Anthropic continues to strongly bet on responsible development. As its valuation and preference among enterprise clients grow, Wu and her team seek to ensure that these advancements reach as many people as possible, always with a safety focus that avoids greater risks.
The future described by Cat Wu is one where AI becomes a true proactive partner, freeing up time and creative potential for people. A change that, if realized, will profoundly transform the way we work and produce.
