Claude Computer Use Changed Everything: A Live Demo on Businessing
Contributed by SBOC Member:
Pat Miller
Founder of the Small Business Owners Community
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Claude Computer Use is changing how small business owners work — and I have six hours of proof.
I’m going to tell you something that sounds insane, but it’s true: I just saved six hours of work with AI. Not “estimated to save.” Not “could theoretically save.” I just did it. Watching it happen live, on the show, was absolutely wild.
This is different from every other AI thing you’ve heard about. We’re not talking about AI that tells you what to do. We’re talking about AI that actually does it.
What Is Claude Computer Use?
Okay, so normally when you use AI, you ask it a question and it gives you an answer. Or you ask it to write something and it writes it. You’re still doing the thinking and the clicking around. You’re just getting help with the writing.
Claude Computer Use is different. You tell Claude to do something, and Claude… does it. It moves your mouse. It clicks buttons. It reads what’s on the screen. It figures out what to do next. It’s like hiring a very fast, very smart assistant who doesn’t need coffee breaks.
The first time I saw someone use it, I didn’t believe it. I thought it was a trick. But I watched it research a person, write an email, rewrite that email in a different voice, and optimize it for YouTube and podcasts. All without a human clicking once.
The Live Demo That Changed My Mind
On the show, we did a live demo. We researched someone named Rhonda Noordyke. We found her LinkedIn. We built an entire outreach email from scratch. Then we had Claude rewrite it in what we call the “ghost writer” voice—casual, conversational, not corporate. Then we optimized it for our show.
All of that used to take me like an hour. Sometimes two hours if I’m distracted. Claude did it in minutes. And the quality was better because Claude had read everything we sent and understood the context in a way that I might not have, just doing it myself.
The wild part? We didn’t set it up perfectly. We didn’t use perfect prompts. We just kind of winged it and gave Claude some direction. And it figured out what we meant.
THE Six Hours That I Got Back
I’ve started using Computer Use for everything. Research. Writing. Building email templates. Analyzing data. Organizing information. Weird format stuff that would normally make me want to cry.
I keep track of the time. In one week, I saved about six hours. Not by replacing myself with AI. But by not doing the boring, annoying parts of the work that don’t actually require my thinking. I do the strategic part—what we’re trying to do and why—and Claude does the execution.
That’s not six hours of me being lazy. That’s six hours I can spend on growing the business. Or on client work. Or on literally anything that matters more than copying and pasting research into an email template.
The Thing Nobody's Saying
Everybody’s freaked out that AI is going to replace people. And I get it. But what’s actually happening is AI is replacing boring work. The work that nobody wants to do anyway.
You know what I don’t love? Reformatting research. You know what I do love? Thinking about what story to tell. I love the strategy part. I love the creative part. I hate the busywork part. And now the busywork part is handled.
If AI could make you do more of the work you love and less of the work you hate, why wouldn’t you use it?
One Critical Warning
Here’s the thing though. Be really careful about software contracts. I mean really careful. There are companies out there who are going to sell you on their AI tool and you’re going to sign a three-year contract and then you’re stuck.
Don’t do that. Don’t sign annual deals with software companies. Don’t lock yourself in. Technology changes too fast. Better tools come out. Your needs change. And you want the freedom to switch when something better shows up.
I’d rather pay monthly and have the option to leave than save a little money and be trapped with something that stops working for me.
This Is Just The Beginning
We’re still in the early days of this. The first version of anything is weird and clunky. But I’m already seeing how different this is from every other “AI assistant” I’ve tried.
The work I do is changing. Not disappearing. Changing. I’m spending less time on execution and more time on thinking about what matters. And that’s exactly what I want.
If you’re doing repetitive, research-heavy, format-heavy work, you need to try this. Not because it’s cool. Not because AI is trendy. But because you could save hours every week. And those hours are the only thing you can’t make more of.
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Contributed by
Pat Miller
Founder of the Small Business Owners Community
Pat spent two decades in broadcasting management and hosting. After leaving the radio industry, he spent time consulting small businesses and realized the support system for entrepreneurs was broken. Where could you find help for improving small businesses and building real connections with other like-minded people. In June of 2020, the Idea Collective Small Business Community was born.