The AI landscape is crowded with personal and productivity assistants, and new ones seem to arrive weekly. Anthropic is now throwing its hat into the ring with a new app called Claude Duet, hoping to capture user attention in a space already populated by Meta Muse, OpenAI Dots, Hark, Instinct, Grok Bot, and Fo. According to Anthropic, this new agent is designed for professionals and small businesses, helping them automate and manage tasks. The company draws a clear line between Duet and personal agents like Instinct, noting that Duet isn't suited for running errands or booking tickets, and it can't show its browser activity in real time. What Duet can do instead is build a daily briefing for users, create dashboards, or suggest actions based on the user's data. Like other agents, Duet can work on tasks in the background through its own virtual machine while you attend to other things, then check back with you when it needs approval. The launch comes as the market moves beyond AI assistants toward agents that can act on users' behalf. Many of Anthropic's competitors are zeroing in on business use cases. While Meta's Muse is a personal AI assistant, the company also released a version tailored to small businesses with connections to other apps. OpenAI's Dots likewise has a business focus, with integration into professional tools.

Anthropic says Duet proactively delivers recommendations as it monitors ongoing tasks. Built on the Claude Opus 5.5 model, Duet can connect to more than 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace. It can also make online purchases on users' behalf through Stripe's Link digital wallet or Shopify's Shop Pay. The company said sensitive steps like payments would require user approval. However, Duet won't trade securities or move money between accounts. Anthropic also released a new classifier to check each message and prevent sensitive information from leaking out. By default, the agent would turn down requests asking for credit card numbers and government identification, according to the company. Claude Duet is available as an app on iOS and Android, and on the web through Claude.ai for Pro and Max customers in research preview. Users have to join a waitlist to try it.