Anthropic launches Claude Duet, a proactive AI agent for business work

Anthropic has opened a research preview for Claude Duet, a proactive AI agent designed to monitor work, complete assigned tasks, and alert users when decisions need their attention. The product is available through a waitlist to Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the United States.

Claude Duet is separate from the main Claude chat experience. Instead of waiting for a prompt, it can review connected accounts, prepare a morning summary, and contact users during the day when it identifies an urgent item. Anthropic says the service is built for professionals and small business owners managing email, calendars, finances, customer requests, and other business systems.

The agent runs in its own cloud based virtual machine with a browser. That means it can continue working after a user closes their laptop or phone. Users can send requests by text or voice in a single ongoing conversation. According to Anthropic, Duet carries over the user’s existing Claude memory, skills, and connected applications.

This new offering is the latest example in a new category of AI tools including Meta Muse and ChatGPT Dots that all go back to OpenClaw.

A focus on prioritization and approvals

Anthropic positions judgment as the main distinction between Claude Duet and a conventional chatbot. The system is intended to decide which items can wait and which require a user’s input. It checks connected accounts every few hours, rather than continuously, partly to limit usage of a subscriber’s plan.

Its morning brief can summarize issues across business systems. Anthropic’s examples include a contract renewal awaiting review, a permit fee requiring payment, unpaid invoices, hiring deadlines, and changes in customer complaints or sales data. It can also create materials such as dashboards, presentations, forecasts, documents, and web app prototypes.

Duet can access more than 6,000 connectors and plugins in the Claude Marketplace, Anthropic says. Supported workflows include:

• Finding Gmail and Slack messages that need replies.
• Reviewing QuickBooks or Stripe for overdue invoices.
• Preparing payroll in Gusto for review.
• Drafting job posts for LinkedIn and agreements for DocuSign.
• Creating follow up messages from HubSpot data.
• Managing Shopify work and creating campaign assets in Canva.

The product is designed to stop before consequential actions. It can draft a message, prepare a payment, or fill out a document, but it must show the proposed action and request approval before sending, paying, signing, or deleting. Anthropic says securities trading and transfers between financial accounts remain prohibited even if a user approves them.

Security measures and current limits

Anthropic says Claude Duet uses the same credential handling approach as its Managed Agents product, meaning the model does not directly receive passwords or sign in tokens. The company also says it uses an automated classifier to evaluate actions and has added safeguards against prompt injection, where malicious instructions are hidden in webpages, documents, or messages.

A separate classifier and system prompt aim to prevent the sharing of highly sensitive data, including credit card and government identification numbers. Anthropic says health and personal financial information may be sent only when a user has explicitly instructed the agent to do so.

For purchases, Claude Duet can use Stripe’s Link wallet or Shopify’s Shop Pay. Link uses a virtual card, according to Anthropic. The company says 1Password support for saved website logins is planned.

The research preview has significant constraints. Duet shares the same usage allowance as a subscriber’s regular Claude account, and background checks count against that limit. Large tasks can require many model interactions. Anthropic also warns that the system may misunderstand an email thread, judge urgency incorrectly, or miss updates that arrive between checks. It cannot yet show users its browser, and it is currently stronger on workplace tasks than personal errands.

Video

Sources

• Introducing Claude Duet – Anthropic
• Claude Duet – Anthropic