On October 21st, Anthropic announced a research preview of "Claude Duet," an AI agent designed to proactively handle user notifications and requested tasks. Invitations will be extended sequentially from a waitlist, targeting Pro/Max subscribers in the U.S. The availability in Japan is currently unknown. Usage will count towards regular Claude limits and be included in the 5-hour increments or weekly caps for Pro/Max plans.
Claude Duet is an AI assistant that can be tasked via text or voice messages. It will be offered as a separate application from the standard Claude app, inheriting memories, skills, and external service connections configured in the user's Claude account. It can summarize important matters every morning or advance the creation of documents and dashboards.
Because it uses a virtual machine in the cloud equipped with a dedicated browser for processing, it can continue working even if the user's PC or smartphone is powered off. It is designed to notify users when a task is completed or requires confirmation.
Operations such as sending messages, making payments, signing documents, and deleting items are designed to display the content and await user approval. However, actions like stock trading or transferring funds between accounts cannot be executed even with approval.
In the realm of persistent AI agents, SpaceXSI announced "Grok Bot" in August, Meta unveiled "Muse" in September, and OpenAI introduced "dots" in the same month. The key difference from conventional tools like Codex or Claude Code is that these AIs possess a dedicated working environment in the cloud, allowing them to operate autonomously even when the user is not actively using the app. Even if users don't run the AI on their own PCs, the AI can research necessary information, advance tasks, and report results or matters requiring confirmation.
Claude Duet is a service with a similar direction, and the competition among AI development companies is expanding from chat response performance to persistent AI agents that continuously advance tasks on behalf of users.
