Claude Duet puts Anthropic in the race for the proactive work assistant

Anthropic wants a place in the small-business back office, and it is trying to get there without a new price tag. Duet, introduced on 21 October, is an assistant that works across connected apps and prepares tasks for a human to approve. Background checks count against existing plan limits, according to the notes from The Neuron's coverage.

Anthropic said Duet checks connected apps "every few hours rather than continuously". It is a research-preview waitlist for US Pro and Max subscribers, available on dedicated mobile apps or the web. Team and Enterprise customers are excluded, so the buyers with the largest budgets cannot yet use it.

Duet runs on Opus 5.5 and can draw on Claude memory and skills. A cloud virtual machine lets it continue browser tasks when a user's devices are offline. It can reach more than 6,000 Marketplace connectors and plugins, including Gmail, QuickBooks, Stripe, Gusto and HubSpot. That spans email, accounting, payments, payroll and sales records.

Anthropic set limits on what it can do alone. Duet needs approval before sending messages, making payments, signing agreements or deleting documents. Securities trading and transfers between financial accounts are barred even with permission. Anthropic also describes credential protections, automated checks, prompt-injection defences and sensitive-data filters.

Rivals are already moving. Meta has Muse for Small Business, and OpenAI is rolling out Dots to Pro and Business Premium subscribers.

Anthropic is spending existing subscription value rather than charging for Duet. Background checks draw on current plan limits, so heavy users may reach their caps sooner. Anthropic has published no usage figures, which leaves the cost to subscribers unclear. Pro and Max users are the likeliest to find out first.

The harder test is reliability. Anthropic acknowledges Duet can misread conversations or urgency, and users cannot yet inspect its browser activity. No task-completion rates have been published, and performance in real business workflows is unconfirmed. An assistant with access to Stripe, QuickBooks and Gusto earns trust through accuracy, and the approval gates only partly cover that risk. Watch for the Team and Enterprise opening, and for any figures that let buyers compare Duet with Muse and Dots.