Anthropic has launched Claude Duet, a new agent app entering the crowded AI assistant market. The AI world, as the company notes, is flooded with personal and productivity-based assistants, and Anthropic is entering this battle in the hopes of gaining user attention. Duet is aimed at professionals and small businesses, with a focus on automating and managing tasks. It is positioned against rivals such as Meta Muse, OpenAI Dots, Hark, Instinct, Grok Bot, and Fo.

Anthropic draws a clear line between Duet and personal agents like Instinct. Duet is not good at handling errands or booking tickets, and it cannot show its browser use as it happens. Instead, Duet builds daily briefings, creates dashboards, and suggests actions based on the user’s data. Like other agents, it can complete tasks in the background through its own virtual machine while the user handles other things, then comes back for approval if needed. Anthropic says Duet proactively delivers its recommendations as it monitors ongoing tasks.

Duet is built on the Claude Opus 5.5 model and can connect to over 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace. It can make online purchases on users’ behalf via Stripe’s Link digital wallet or Shopify’s Shop Pay. Sensitive steps such as payments require user approval. Anthropic also says Duet will not trade securities or move money between accounts. To prevent sensitive information from leaking, Anthropic released a new classifier that checks each message; by default, Duet turns 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.

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. Meta’s Muse is a personal AI assistant, but Meta also released a version for small businesses with connections to other apps. OpenAI’s Dots has a business slant as well, with integration with professional tools. Claude Duet is Anthropic‘s bet on this agent wave, pairing proactive recommendations with explicit safety boundaries around sensitive actions.