Anthropic unveils Claude Duet AI agent app (Oct 21)
Claude logo and a keyboard in this illustration taken October 19, 2026. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
(Corrects paragraph 1 in Oct 21 story to "Wednesday" from "Thursday")
Oct 21 : Anthropic on Wednesday unveiled Claude Duet, a standalone AI agent app designed to act as a proactive assistant for professionals and small-business owners, as rivals such as OpenAI and Meta race to develop AI agents that can complete work autonomously on users' behalf.
• Duet delivers a daily briefing and handles tasks ranging from scheduling meetings to building financial forecasts and web apps, Anthropic said
• Available on iOS, Android and claude.ai through a waitlisted research preview, 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 and fueled investor interest in autonomous AI services
• 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
