Claude Duet: Anthropic’s Riposte to Meta Muse, OpenAI Dots and Instinct

After getting ahead of other AI companies in selling AI tools to large businesses, Anthropic now wants Claude Duet to help smaller businesses too.

Recently, we found a list of AI helpers that people can use through text messages. These helpers have names like Caddy, Comma, Olly, Pally, and Instinct. They let people use AI without downloading another app. Now, Anthropic is joining this group with a new AI helper called Claude Duet. The company hopes it will attract users.

Anthropic, led by Dario Amodei and his team, is a little late to this market. Other companies, including OpenAI and Meta Platforms, already have similar products called Dots and Meta Muse. Claude Duet is designed to help people who work in offices and run small businesses. It can take care of repeated work tasks automatically and help people manage their everyday work.

Although Anthropic is entering this market later than its competitors, it wants people to understand that Claude Duet is different from personal AI helpers like Instinct and others. The company says Duet is not as good at handling personal errands or booking tickets. It also is not very good at showing people what it is doing in a web browser while it works.

That might sound like a strange way to promote a new product. But Anthropic says Claude Duet is good at other things. It can prepare a daily report with important information for its users, create dashboards that show useful information, and suggest what people should do based on their data. Like other AI helpers, Duet can also finish tasks in the background using a virtual computer. This means users can do other things while Duet works.

Claude Duet also asks users for permission when it needs to do something that was not clearly included in their original instructions. This is meant to stop the AI helper from making unexpected decisions on its own while running on someone's phone or laptop.

Anthropic says Claude Duet keeps track of tasks that are already happening and offers suggestions without waiting for users to ask. Duet runs on Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 AI model. It can connect to more than 6,000 connectors and plug-ins available through the Claude Marketplace. These connections allow it to work with other tools and services. However, there is a limitation. Claude Duet is available as an app for iOS and Android and can also be used through a web browser by Pro and Max customers. But people who want to try it must first join a waiting list.

There is a clear reason why Anthropic is making this move. The market for AI tools used by businesses is changing. Companies no longer want only AI assistants that answer questions or offer help. They increasingly want AI agents that can actually carry out tasks for people. Anthropic was one of the first companies to make progress in selling AI tools to large businesses. But its competitors moved ahead in creating personal AI assistants that can also help small businesses by connecting to tools people use at work. Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots are two examples of this change.

Anthropic is also trying to keep its focus on security. It has made rules requiring Claude Duet to ask users for approval before doing sensitive things, such as making payments. Duet will also refuse to buy or sell financial investments, such as stocks, or move money between accounts. In addition, a new system will check every message to help stop private information from being shared when it should not be. By default, Duet will refuse requests for sensitive details such as credit card numbers and government identification numbers.