Claude Code: The agent that's turning heads across dev, IT, and beyond
Developers spent their holiday break stress-testing Anthropic's Claude Code and came back with the same report: big productivity gains. Website traffic for Claude more than doubled in December, and daily desktop visitors rose 12% month over month, based on data from Similarweb and Sensor Tower. The buzz isn't just hype-people are shipping real work with it.
Claude Code is an AI "agent" that uses tools and works with minimal hand-holding. The newest version, Claude Opus 4.5, runs on users' machines and feels fundamentally different from earlier code assistants that behaved like junior hires.
Why this release feels different
Developers say the model can break down large tasks, plan, and execute across multiple tools without constant prompts. That shifts it from "autocomplete on steroids" into a flexible teammate that can own projects end to end.
Results are showing up fast. Malte Ubl, CTO at Vercel, finished a project in a week that he says would have taken him a year solo. He put in 10-hour days over vacation and described each win like pulling a slot machine lever.
Real work, not just demos
People are using Claude Code to analyze public spending data, restore broken wedding photos, spin up websites from scratch, answer inboxes, and even coordinate food delivery. Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke shared that he used it to build an HTML viewer for his MRI data-no commercial Windows software required.
Boris Cherny, who leads Claude Code, said a user wired up a camera to monitor tomato plants and orchestrated the workflow through the agent. As he put it, "It's just so different than the AI that came before."
Agents that actually do the work
Claude Code can plan, call tools, and iterate until it hits the goal. For many, this is the first time "agents" feel practical for day-to-day tasks, not just research papers and stage demos.
Because so many non-developers wanted in, Anthropic shipped a friendlier interface called Cowork. It was built in about 10 days-using Claude Code.
Anthropic's position-and what comes next
Anthropic has focused on coding quality first, then on "tooling"-how well the model uses external software with minimal guidance. Benchmarks and third-party research, including work from UC Berkeley, place it among the top performers for coding and tool use.
There's also market momentum; many expect Anthropic to go public this year. The key question, as David Hsu of Retool put it: "The bigger story here is going to be when this goes beyond software engineering… How far does it go?"
How to use this now (developers, IT, and operators)
- Start small, scope tight: Pick a contained project (internal tool, data pipeline, test suite refactor). Define success and guardrails upfront.
- Wire in tools you already use: Issue trackers, code search, vector stores, storage, and your CI. Let the agent plan and call them.
- Keep a human in the loop: Require approvals on critical steps (auth, data movement, deploys). Log every action for review.
- Measure like a product: Track time saved, PR throughput, defects found, and rework. Compare agent-assisted vs. baseline.
- Mind security: Use sandboxed environments and least-privilege tokens. Rotate credentials and monitor tool invocation patterns.
- Expand carefully: Once a workflow is stable, add complexity-multi-repo tasks, cross-team processes, or non-engineering work.
The broader takeaway
Agents are moving from promise to practice. The combination of planning, tool use, and steady iteration is letting people ship projects that felt out of reach a year ago.
If you're building software, running IT, or leading operations, the play is simple: pilot a few high-value workflows, enforce reviews and logs, then scale what clearly saves time without adding risk.
Further resources
Curious about agent benchmarks and traffic data? Check the sources mentioned above: Similarweb and Sensor Tower.
Want structured upskilling for your team? Explore a focused path on Claude with our Claude Certification.
Your membership also unlocks:
