Anthropic takes on Grok Bot, Meta’s Muse, and OpenAI’s Dots with its always-on agent “Claude Duet”

Anthropic has answered Grok Bot, Meta’s Muse, and OpenAI’s Dots with a research preview of Claude Duet. The standalone app runs Claude as a proactive agent that keeps working on tasks while the user is away and asks for approval before taking sensitive steps.

Anthropic says the big difference from the regular Claude app is which way things flow. In the Claude app, users open a chat. Duet comes to them instead. Every morning, the agent sends a short summary of the most important items from connected apps. After that, it only reaches out when something needs attention. It pulls memory, skills, and app connections from the user’s existing Claude account.Ad Users assign tasks by text or voice message in a single ongoing thread. According to Anthropic, that covers everything from scheduling to dashboards and financial forecasts to prototypes and web apps. The agent works on a virtual machine, its own cloud computer with a browser, so the user’s laptop or phone doesn’t need to stay on.Ad Duet connects to services like Gmail, Slack, Stripe, Docusign, and Shopify through more than 6,000 connectors and plugins from the Claude Marketplace. That lets it track down unpaid invoices and draft payment reminders, or get payroll ready. For purchases, it uses Stripe Link with a virtual card, so the user’s real card number never gets shared. Several competitors have launched similar products in recent months. SpaceXAI opened the Grok Bot beta in August. In September, Meta followed with Muse and OpenAI with its Dots. All of them are betting on personal agents that handle tasks independently and act on their own initiative.Ad Anthropic says Duet can only read, draft, and prepare on its own. Before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document, or deletes anything, it shows exactly what it plans to do and waits for the user’s approval.