The AI world is flooded with personal and productivity-based assistants, with new ones launching every week. Now, Anthropic is entering this battle in the hopes of gaining user attention with a new app called Claude Duet, aimed at rivaling Meta Muse, OpenAI Dots, Hark, Instinct, Grok Bot, and Fo.
Anthropic said the new agent is meant to cater to professionals and small businesses to help them with automating and managing tasks. The company is making a distinction from personal agents such as Instinct, by noting that Duet isn’t good at handling errands or booking tickets, and it can’t show you its browser use as it happens.
Instead, Duet can build a daily briefing for its users, create dashboards, or suggest actions based on the user’s data. Like other agents, Duet can complete tasks in the background through its own virtual machine while you handle other things, then come back to you if it needs your approval.
The launch arrives as the market shifts beyond AI assistants to agents that can work on users’ behalf. Many of Anthropic’s rivals are focusing on business use cases. While Meta’s Muse is a personal AI assistant, the company also released a version to cater to small businesses with connections to other apps. OpenAI’s Dots has a business slant as well, with its integration with professional tools.
Anthropic says Duet proactively delivers its recommendations as it monitors ongoing tasks. Built on the Claude Opus 5.5 model, Duet can connect to over 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace. It can also make online purchases on users’ behalf via 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 to prevent sensitive information from leaking out. It said that, by default, the agent would turn down requests asking for credit card numbers and government identification.
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.
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Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web.
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