Anthropic Launches Claude Duet, a Business-Focused AI Agent

Anthropic has officially entered the crowded market of AI personal assistants with the launch of Claude Duet, a new application designed specifically for professionals and small businesses. The company is positioning the tool as a strategic counter to a wave of recent competitors, including Meta Muse, OpenAI Dots, Hark, Instinct, Grok Bot, and Fo. While the sector is currently saturated with new productivity-based assistants launching weekly, Anthropic aims to capture user attention by focusing on a distinct professional utility rather than general consumer appeal.

The company made a clear distinction between Claude Duet and personal agents like Instinct. According to Anthropic, Duet is not optimized for handling casual errands, booking tickets, or providing real-time visual feedback of its browser activities. Instead, the agent is engineered to automate and manage complex workflows, allowing users to offload administrative burdens while focusing on higher-level work.

Key features of the new agent include the ability to construct daily briefings, generate custom dashboards, and suggest actionable steps based on user data. Similar to other advanced agents in the market, Duet operates within its own virtual machine, allowing it to complete tasks in the background. It will only return to the user if a specific decision or approval is required, thereby minimizing interruptions during the workday.

This launch coincides with a broader industry shift from simple AI assistants to autonomous agents that can act on behalf of users. Many of Anthropic’s direct competitors are increasingly prioritizing business use cases. For instance, while Meta’s Muse functions primarily as a personal assistant, the company has also rolled out a version tailored for small businesses that features deep connections to external applications. OpenAI’s Dots similarly leans into professional integration, emphasizing its compatibility with established business tools.

Anthropic highlights the proactive nature of Duet, noting that it continuously monitors ongoing tasks to deliver timely recommendations. The agent is built upon the Claude Opus 5.5 model, providing a robust foundation for its reasoning capabilities. To ensure broad utility, Duet can integrate with more than 6,000 connectors and plug-ins available in the Claude Marketplace, allowing it to interact with a wide array of third-party services.

Financial transactions represent a significant feature of the new platform. Duet is capable of making online purchases on behalf of users through partnerships with Stripe’s Link digital wallet and Shopify’s Shop Pay. However, the company emphasized that sensitive steps, particularly those involving payments, will always require explicit user approval to maintain trust and control over spending.

To further define its operational boundaries, Anthropic stated that Duet will not trade securities or transfer money between different accounts. This limitation helps to keep the agent within a defined scope of financial activity, focusing on purchasing and task management rather than complex financial portfolio management.

Security remains a priority in the development of the tool. The company released a new classifier that scans each message to prevent sensitive information from leaking out. By default, the agent is configured to decline requests that ask for credit card numbers or government identification, adding an extra layer of protection for user data.

Claude Duet is currently available as a native app for both iOS and Android devices. It is also accessible via the web through Claude.ai, specifically for Pro and Max subscribers who are participating in the research preview. Access to the platform is currently limited, requiring users to join a waitlist to begin testing the new agent.