Anthropic unveils Claude Duet AI agent app

Anthropic on Thursday unveiled Claude Duet, a standalone AI agent app designed to act as a proactive assistant for professionals and small-business owners. Rivals such as OpenAI and Meta are also developing AI agents that can complete work autonomously. Duet delivers a daily briefing and handles tasks ranging from scheduling meetings to building financial forecasts and web apps. It monitors users' connected apps and surfaces items requiring attention rather than waiting for prompts. Duet is built around Anthropic's Opus 5.5 model and is initially available to US subscribers on Pro and Max plans, sharing existing usage limits. OpenAI last month launched always-on "dots" agents that pursue user goals across apps such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, while Meta's Muse AI agent drew millions of downloads. Duet integrates with over 6,000 connectors in the Claude Marketplace, including Gmail and Slack, and can make purchases via Stripe's Link digital wallet and Shopify's Shop Pay. The AI lab said Claude Duet requires user approval for sensitive actions, while acknowledging the agent can misjudge urgency and remains less effective at personal tasks such as booking tickets.