TL;DR — Key Takeaways
- Anthropic introduced Claude Duet, a proactive AI assistant that monitors connected applications, identifies tasks needing attention and prepares work without being prompted.
- Powered by Claude Opus 5.5, Duet uses more than 6,000 connectors and plugins to carry out work across applications, but requires approval for consequential actions.
- The waitlisted research preview is initially limited to U.S. Pro and Max subscribers, with background monitoring counting against their existing Claude usage limits.
Anthropic wants Claude to stop waiting around for instructions. Its new Claude Duet assistant, debuted today, can keep track of what’s happening across a user’s connected apps, spot tasks that need attention and prepare work without being prompted.
The company has opened a waitlist for a research preview of Duet, which is designed to be a proactive personal assistant for professionals and small business owners. Unlike a conventional chatbot, Duet can initiate contact, deliver daily briefings, and notify users when it needs a decision.
The research preview will initially be available to U.S. Claude Pro and Max subscribers at no additional cost, either through a standalone iOS or Android app or via claude.ai. Team and Enterprise plans are not yet supported.
Duet is powered by Claude Opus 5.5, Anthropic’s latest flagship model, which the company says performs better on complex business tasks and is less likely to act outside its instructions than earlier models. Anthropic says the model’s judgment helps Duet decide which tasks need attention, what can wait and when to seek user approval.
Duet carries over users’ existing Claude memory, skills and connected applications, allowing them to assign work through text or voice messages in a continuous conversation. Duet checks connected accounts every few hours, preparing morning summaries and flagging issues such as scheduling conflicts or messages requiring attention. Users can specify what they want monitored and how frequently.
Once it identifies a task to work on, the assistant can take action through more than 6,000 connectors and plugins available through the Claude Marketplace. For example, a small business owner could use it to identify unpaid invoices in QuickBooks or Stripe and draft payment reminders. Other supported tasks include preparing payroll in Gusto, handling documents through DocuSign, coordinating communications and building financial forecasts or dashboards.
To carry out this work, Duet uses its own cloud-based virtual machine and browser, enabling it to continue working even when the user’s computer or phone is off. It can determine which connected tools to use and complete multiple steps before presenting the results for review.
Anthropic says Duet requires approval before executing consequential actions, including sending messages, making payments, signing documents or deleting information. The company says Duet cannot directly access users’ passwords or sign-in tokens.
The research preview comes with some limitations. Anthropic acknowledges that Duet can misunderstand conversations, misjudge priorities or overlook developments between periodic account checks. It is currently less effective at handling personal errands and cannot display its browser to users.
There’s also a tradeoff to having an AI assistant working behind the scenes. Duet draws from the same usage allowance as a subscriber’s regular Claude account, meaning its background monitoring can eat into the capacity available for other tasks. More demanding work like building financial models or presentations could take an even bigger bite out of that allowance. So for now, Duet may lighten a professional’s to-do list, but it sounds like checking its work and monitoring its usage will still be on the list.
