Are you tired of entering long prompts every time you ask a general-purpose AI to do a specialized task? (Problem) In October 2025, Anthropic introduced a new concept called 'Agent Skills'. This is a feature that bundles instructions, scripts, and resources required for a specific task into a single folder (Skill) and equips the AI with it. (Solution) Developers can now package domain expertise into 'Skills' and distribute them across the organization. (Evidence)

What are Agent Skills?

1. Anthropic-managed Skills (Default Skills)

High-quality skills pre-made by Anthropic.

• Office Skills: Skills to freely handle PowerPoint (PPTX), Excel (XLSX), and Word (DOCX) files.
• PDF Analyst: Skills to precisely analyze PDF documents containing complex tables and charts.

2. Custom Skills

Companies can create their own workflows as skills.

• Ex: "Skill to refactor according to our company's code style guide"
• Ex: "Skill to organize data adhering to the monthly marketing report format"

How It Works

Skills are not just collections of prompts. Combined with Code Execution tools, they manipulate files and process data through actual Python scripts. In other words, Claude uses its 'hands' rather than just 'speaking'.

Impact of Introduction

With the introduction of this feature, Claude can be used like a digital employee performing a specific job, going beyond a simple chatbot. It is like hiring an expert who can be deployed immediately without onboarding costs.