I wrote recently about why connected AI beats AI working from a blank box. This is the practical half: how to actually set it up, in about fifteen minutes, without handing over more than you meant to.
No technical background needed. If you can install an app and tick a permissions box, you can do this.
Before you start
Two things worth knowing up front, so you do not get halfway and hit a wall.
You need a paid Claude plan - Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise. And for local file access specifically you need the desktop app, on Mac or Windows, from claude.com/download. The browser version cannot reach files on your computer, which is rather the point.
The desktop app also needs to stay open while Claude is working with your local files. Close it and the work stops.
Step 1: Point it at a real folder
In the prompt bar, choose the option to work in a project or folder, and pick a folder on your computer.
Make it a real one. The temptation is to create a clean test folder with two sample files in it, and you will learn nothing. Pick something you are genuinely working in this week - a client account, a campaign you are mid-way through, the deck you keep meaning to finish.
Claude reads what is in there. Word documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, presentations. It also saves finished work back to the same place, which is why the folder choice matters more than any prompt you will write.
One folder, not your whole drive. You can always connect another.
Step 2: Connect one app
Use the "+" button in the chat box, or go to Customize and then Connectors. There is a full directory of what is available at claude.ai/directory.
Start with one, and make it the place most of your work context actually lives. For most marketers that is email or cloud storage - Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and similar. Not the one that sounds most impressive. The one you have open all day.
You will be asked to sign in to that service and approve access. If you are on a work account, your IT team may need to approve it first, which is worth finding out before you promise anyone a demo.
Step 3: Set the permissions deliberately
This is the step people click through, and it is the one that matters.
Claude can either pause and ask before it takes an action that touches the outside world, or it can get on with things without asking. The default asks. Leave it asking, at least until you have watched it work a few times and you trust what it does with your particular setup.
It is slightly slower. It is also the difference between an agent that drafts an email and one that sends it.
Two things worth knowing: it requires your explicit permission before permanently deleting anything, and file access stays limited to the folders you actually connected. Those are real guardrails, but they are not a substitute for choosing sensibly in steps 1 and 2.
Step 4: Give it a real task
Do not open with something clever. Open with something verifiable, so you can judge the quality of what comes back.
The best first task is a summary of what it can now see:
Take a look at everything in this folder and write me a brief on what you have learned.
You will find out immediately whether it can actually read your files, whether it understood the project, and where the gaps are. It is also a genuinely useful output, which is more than most tutorials give you.
From there, try the things you would otherwise put off. Find every deck that mentions pricing. Pull the case studies relevant to retail. Draft the update using the last three as a tone reference.
What I would not connect
A short list, because the setup makes it easy to over-share.
Anything with client data or commercially sensitive numbers I would not be comfortable having read. Personal accounts mixed in with work ones. And any folder where I could not tell you what is in it, which is a good sign it should not be connected to anything.
If you are doing this on a work machine, check your company's AI policy first. "Nobody told me not to" is not a position you want to be defending.
The honest summary
Fifteen minutes of setup, and the main benefit is not speed. It is that you stop re-explaining your job to a machine every time you open it.
Start with one folder and one connector. Give it a week of real tasks before you decide whether it earns a bigger permission.