AI Glossary
Computer Use (AI)
What is Computer Use (AI)?
The capability of an AI model to control a computer interface — clicking buttons, typing text, navigating applications, and reading the screen — to complete tasks on behalf of a user. Pioneered by Anthropic's Claude computer use feature (2024), this capability extends AI agents beyond text into direct interaction with any software.
Example in practice
An operations analyst could instruct an AI with computer use capability to open a legacy internal system, extract monthly figures from a table, and paste them into a spreadsheet — without any API or data export being available.
See also