Anthropic unveils Claude Duet to monitor connected apps and manage workplace tasks

Anthropic has launched Claude Duet, an AI agent app for professionals and small businesses. Powered by the Opus 5.5 model, it monitors connected apps, delivers daily briefings, schedules meetings, and prepares financial forecasts. It requires user approval for sensitive actions and competes with sim...

Anthropic has unveiled Claude Duet, a standalone artificial intelligence (AI) agent app designed to help professionals and small-business owners manage routine work.

The app can deliver daily briefings, monitor connected applications and perform tasks such as scheduling meetings, building dashboards and preparing financial forecasts.

Unlike conventional chatbots that respond to individual prompts, Claude Duet is designed to identify information requiring attention and continue working on assigned tasks even when users step away.

Proactive assistant

Claude Duet monitors users' connected applications and brings important updates to their attention. It can also complete tasks across different services, reducing the need for users to switch between applications and gather information manually.

"It comes to you with what needs your attention, completes tasks you ask of it, keeps working even when you step away, and checks with you before it acts on your behalf," Anthropic said in a blog post.

The app is built around Anthropic's Opus 5.5 model and integrates with more than 6,000 connectors available through the Claude Marketplace, including Gmail and Slack. It can also facilitate purchases through Stripe's Link digital wallet and Shopify's Shop Pay.

Human approval

Anthropic said Claude Duet requires user approval before taking sensitive actions, including sending messages, making payments, signing documents or deleting information. The company has cautioned that the agent may misread conversations or misjudge which tasks are urgent.

The app is still in an early research preview, and Anthropic said personal tasks such as booking tickets are not among its strongest capabilities. Its performance and reliability will depend on further testing and feedback from early users.

Rivals race ahead

Claude Duet enters a market where OpenAI and Meta are also developing AI agents that can complete tasks across applications.

Meta launched its Muse personal AI agent last month. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said during the company's third-quarter earnings call that more than 10 million people in the US and Canada had set up Muse agents over the preceding six weeks.

OpenAI introduced its always-on Dots agents at its annual developer conference. The agents are designed to pursue users' goals across applications such as Slack and Microsoft Teams.

While Meta has focused on consumer assistance, Anthropic is targeting workplace productivity. OpenAI's offering spans both consumer and business use cases, intensifying competition to develop AI systems that can perform tasks with less direct user involvement.