How to govern Claude Cowork
Claude working inside your files and tools to complete tasks, not just answer questions.
Anthropic · Reviewed when the vendor ships a capability change or a customer declares the tool
How Claude Cowork is used
We see four common ways businesses use Claude Cowork, and we govern each one on its own terms. If your team uses it differently, that is fine: you describe the use in your own words and Certrak works out the governance from what it actually does.
General productivity assistance
Consequence to people: LowDrafting, summarising, brainstorming, internal Q&A - day-to-day help with internal work
Internal informationEvery output reviewedInternal use only
Document analysis and review
Consequence to people: LowReviewing contracts, reports, or technical documents
Internal informationEvery output reviewedInternal use only
Internal data analysis and insights
Consequence to people: LowAnalysing business data, surfacing insights, building dashboards
Internal informationEvery output reviewedInternal use only
Workflow automation across systems
Consequence to people: MediumAutomating tasks across business systems - triggers, data movement, decisions in workflows
Internal informationNo human reviewInternal use onlyChanges records in other systemsActs on its own
Governing Claude Cowork in practice
- Name one person who owns Claude Cowork in your business. Governance starts with a name.
- Write down what Claude Cowork is used for. Certrak recognises 4 common uses: General productivity assistance, Document analysis and review, Internal data analysis and insights and Workflow automation across systems. Yours may differ; write down yours.
- Decide what Claude Cowork may and may not be given. Internal business information is in scope, so name what stays out.
- There is no human review of outputs. Decide whether that is acceptable for each use, and what would make you change it.
- Claude Cowork can create, change, or delete records in another system without a person approving. Record which of these you allow, and who can change that.
- Look at this again every month, and sooner on any of these: industry incidents, vendor model updates and autonomy level changes.