Goodbye ChatGPT. Hello Claude Cowork!
Goodbye ChatGPT. Hello Claude Cowork!
How we turned hours of M&E drudgery into minutes
Image made with AI · Claude Cowork in action
We have been using Claude Cowork since day one at EvalCommunity — and honestly, it has changed how we handle messy evaluation data, field reports, and indicator tracking for Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) and global development projects.
It is an incredible tool for automating tedious Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) tasks. No more endless back-and-forth with ChatGPT. Here is our real experience for M&E experts and global development professionals.
What makes Claude Cowork different from ChatGPT?
- Direct access to your local files → no more uploading CSVs one by one. Works with our evaluation folders directly.
- Takes on multi-step tasks autonomously → from cleaning survey data to merging baseline reports.
- Creates professional deliverables → Excel dashboards, PowerPoint summaries, Word evaluation reports.
- Plugins for specialized M&E work → logframe analysis, outcome harvesting, data quality checks.
Working with ChatGPT is like being stuck in a chat bubble. Claude Cowork's context is the folder you give it access to. Point → plan → execute. Game changer for M&E and global development experts.
How we use Claude Cowork at EvalCommunity
Just download Claude for desktop, install it, and open the app. At the top you will see 3 options: Chat, Cowork, Code. Choose Cowork.
→ "Point to a folder: /M&E_Projects/Baseline_Survey"
→ Task: "Clean and categorize 500+ beneficiary responses"
Note for Windows users: You might have to turn on Developer Mode (Settings → Update & Security → For developers → Developer Mode)
Cowork interface overview:
- Folder access panel
- Prompt templates (organize, clean, summarize)
- Plugins and connectors hub
- Approval step before any file changes
How we saved hours with Cowork (ChatGPT cannot do this)
#1 Organizing messy M&E project folders
Prompt we used: "Help me organize my 'Impact_Evaluation_2025' folder. Scan contents, propose categories (baseline/endline, raw data, cleaned data, reports, visuals). Show plan before changes."
→ create /1_Raw_Survey_Data
→ create /2_Cleaned_Datasets
→ create /3_Indicator_Tracking
→ create /4_Qualitative_Interviews
→ flag 15 duplicate files for review
Result: After approval, our project folder was organized in under 90 seconds. We used to spend hours manually sorting.
#2 Classify field visit videos (hundreds of files)
After a field mission to 3 districts, we had 400+ videos. Manual sorting = 8 hours. Claude Cowork did it in 3 minutes.
Prompt: "Separate by location (District A/B/C), then inside each create horizontal/vertical subfolders. Rename files as district_timestamp. Show plan first."
Bonus: With Claude's Dispatch feature, we can trigger these tasks from our phones while commuting.
#3 Turn months of project receipts into categorized M&E expense tracker
Our program team had 6 months of scattered receipts (PDFs, images). We asked Cowork:
"Organize all receipts by expense type: travel, M&E workshops, data collection, software, printing. Create an Excel spreadsheet with date, vendor, amount, category."
| Category | Total (USD) | Receipts |
|---|---|---|
| Travel (field visits) | $3,240 | 48 |
| M&E workshops | $1,875 | 22 |
| Data collection tools | $950 | 15 |
Spreadsheet generated + receipts moved into corresponding subfolders. Saved about 6 hours of manual data entry.
How to make Cowork even more powerful (plugins and connectors)
Plugins turn Claude Cowork into an M&E specialist. They are pre-built instruction sets for tasks like indicator tracking, logframe validation, or financial analysis.
Click the + icon → Add plugins → Browse plugins → "Data Analysis for M&E" by Anthropic
Plugin commands available: build-dashboard, clean-survey, calculate-indicators, merge-baselineExample we used: "build-dashboard" → point to folder with 8 CSVs (enrollment, attendance, test scores, satisfaction) → prompt:
Connectors we love at EvalCommunity
Connectors let Claude interact directly with Google Drive, Notion, ODK, and even email. Click + → Connectors → Manage connectors.
Important note: We tried the "Apple Notes" connector for meeting minutes — works well for creating/updating notes but not advanced tagging. Always check capabilities.
Important Notes from our EvalCommunity experience
- Back up your files first — just like any AI, Claude Cowork can make mistakes. We always duplicate project folders before automation.
- Review Claude's plan before approving — the "show plan first" step saved us from accidental renames.
- Token usage: Cowork consumes more tokens than a regular chat, so reserve it for complex M&E tasks (cleaning large datasets, reorganizing thousands of files).
- Scheduling tasks: We use scheduled runs for weekly indicator refreshes — runs every Friday at 5 PM.
What we learned: nothing beats a good folder setup
Claude Cowork shines when your M&E files have consistent naming. We standardized our evaluation folder structure (Raw → Cleaning → Analysis → Reports) and Cowork became 3x more effective for Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) and global development projects.
Advance your skills with EvalCommunity Academy
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The courses and articles are developed by a team of experienced evaluators, collaborators, authors, and software developers, guided by Fation Luli. EvalCommunity Academy combines practical expertise in Monitoring & Evaluation and International Development with the latest advances in AI to create high-quality, accessible, and practical learning experiences for professionals worldwide.