Anthropic joins Meta and OpenAI’s personal AI assistant race with Duet

Anthropic has entered the race to create AI assistants that remain active when users are away, with a new application called Duet aimed at professionals and small business owners. The app, which is currently in a research preview, can manage emails, calendars, draft replies, and follow up on unfinished work without needing a direct prompt from the user. This feature aims to save users time by automatically handling tasks such as unpaid invoices and drafting reminders based on connected accounts.

Personal assistants, like Duet, aggregate information from users' emails, calendars, and other applications, remember their preferences, and perform actions across various services. This could position them as the primary resource for users needing assistance. By offering its own assistant, Anthropic could potentially divert daily interactions from competitors Meta and OpenAI, even if users might prefer Anthropic's Claude.

Duet is targeted at professionals and small business owners, including those managing invoices, payroll, and customer follow-ups. The company has emphasized work-related applications, as evidenced by over 1,000 business customers spending more than $1 million annually on its services, a figure that doubled in just two months. However, Anthropic has not disclosed the pricing for Duet after the preview period.

Similar to Anthropic's other recent offerings, Duet leverages the data and skills accumulated in Claude, sending morning briefings, checking connected accounts throughout the day, and notifying users when tasks are completed or decisions are needed. Competitors Meta and OpenAI have also launched personal assistants, Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots, respectively, which have quickly gained traction.

Muse, launched in September, has garnered over 10 million downloads in the U.S. and Canada, with a quarter of users activating the service on any given day. OpenAI's Dots debuted in September as well.

Anthropic's introduction of Duet may be partly defensive, offering Claude Pro and Max users a way to delegate more daily tasks without switching to a rival assistant. However, Duet shares its usage limits with regular Claude chats, meaning background tasks consume a portion of the available quota even when users are not actively messaging. Anthropic acknowledged in April that its rapid growth had strained its infrastructure, potentially affecting Duet's availability as it builds waitlists for Team and Enterprise users.