What is Claude Duet? Anthropic's proactive AI agent, explained

Short answer

Claude Duet is an AI assistant you message like a person, by typing or speaking, in one ongoing thread. It runs on Claude Opus 5.5 on its own cloud computer with a browser, so it keeps working after you close the app. It is built for professionals and small business owners.

A chatbot answers when you ask. Claude Duet comes to you when something needs you.

What can Claude Duet do?

• Morning brief: it reviews your email and calendar, highlights priorities and can prepare first drafts for your review
• Monitoring: it checks your connected apps every few hours and messages you only when something needs attention, including stalled threads
• Admin work: scheduling meetings and following up on email
• Bigger jobs: dashboards, financial or sales forecasts, prototypes and web apps, delivered as editable files in the Make tab

Which apps does Claude Duet connect to?

It uses the connectors you have already set up in Claude. Anthropic names Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Docusign and Calendly, and its cloud browser covers sites without a connector. You start every connection yourself and can disconnect any app at any time. Microsoft 365 is not supported yet.

Is Claude Duet safe?

Claude Duet can read and draft on its own, but before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document or deletes anything, it shows you the exact action and waits for your approval. Trading securities and moving money between accounts are off-limits even with approval. Anthropic still warns that hidden instructions in content it reads (prompt injection) can fool it, so review drafts and approval requests carefully.

How to get Claude Duet

• Who: Pro and Max subscribers with a US Claude account; Team and Enterprise plans are not supported yet
• How: join the waitlist on the Claude Duet product page; invitations go out in waves
• Where: a separate app for iPhone and Android, installed from your invitation email
• Cost: no extra charge during the preview, but it draws from your plan's usage limits, background checks included

Limits to know

• It checks in at intervals, so urgent items can reach you late
• It can misread a thread or misjudge what is urgent
• Personal errands, such as booking tickets, are weaker than work tasks
• You cannot choose the model or watch its browser, and it does not make calls or send texts

What Claude Duet means for small businesses

Duet shows where AI assistants are heading: from tools you open to agents that work in the background. For a small team, that means fewer missed follow-ups and less admin. But an agent is only as useful as the systems it can reach, so data locked in tools without a connector needs a custom integration first.

Conclusion

Claude Duet turns Claude from a chat window into a colleague that watches your inbox, drafts the next step and asks before it acts. It is early and US-only, but if you qualify, join the waitlist, connect only what you need and review every approval.