Anthropic answers Meta and OpenAI with a new personal agent, Claude Duet

Anthropic announced Claude Duet on Wednesday, a "proactive agent" built on its flagship Opus 5.5 model that runs in the background, sends users a morning brief on connected apps, and asks for approval on certain tasks; the app is in research preview with a waitlist. Anthropic said Karan Ahuja, who led product management for Meta Superintelligence Labs until July, started at Anthropic in August and led Duet's development, and the launch came on the day of Meta's earnings report. Apptopia estimates Meta's competing Muse agent had more than 14 million installations as of Wednesday, while Anthropic approaches an initial public offering that could value the company at as much as $2 trillion.

Anthropic is joining the personal AI agent craze https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-reveals-dots-ai-agent-devday-meta-muse-2026-9 . The company announced the new app Claude Duet on Wednesday, billed as a "proactive agent" that can run in the background, surface tasks to a user, and handle a variety of work. The tool is in research preview for now with a waitlist, meaning it won't immediately compete for the larger market with other new agents like Meta's Muse https://www.businessinsider.com/stopped-using-meta-muse-after-strange-message-from-ai-agent-2026-10 and OpenAI's Dots https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-dots-head-ai-lets-workers-do-less-or-more-2026-10 . Still, the announcement ramps up the pressure on those companies — Anthropic says it built Duet around its flagship Opus 5.5 model, which was released in late September and has already become one of the industry's most popular. Recent model breakthroughs have made AI better at handling work https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-chatgpt-automates-tasks-computer-use-data-2026-8 on its own, spurring a rush to build these "always-on" personal agents. "It can have the discernment and judgment around when to be proactive, when to act on your behalf," said Mike Krieger, a co-lead of Anthropic's Labs team, said in a Duet launch video. The tool, Anthropic says, will send users a brief each morning about what's happening on their connected apps, and message them when something needs attention. Like other companies' offerings, it runs outside a user's computer, sends notifications, and asks for approval on certain tasks. Anthropic announced Duet on the day of Meta's earnings report and used the opportunity to mention a new poach from Mark Zuckerberg's company. Karan Ahuja led product management for Meta Superintelligence Labs until July, according to his LinkedIn, before starting at Anthropic in August and leading Duet's development. He wrote on X that he's been using Duet to build Duet, and said the team "built it for professionals and small business owners juggling a lot at work and at home." Ahuja also wrote that Anthropic is letting people into Duet from the waitlist "as quickly as possible." The news didn't go unnoticed at Meta. Alexandr Wang, who heads Meta Superintelligence Labs, posted a meme https://x.com/alexandr wang/status/2112995511796183371 about Duet's similarity to Muse. Anthropic is fast approaching a giant initial public offering, which could value the company at as much as $2 trillion. Like other AI players, the company navigates a high-wire competition to win over users, secure computing power, build state-of-the-art models, and deliver AI-native products. The data firm Apptopia estimates that Muse had more than 14 million installations as of Wednesday. It found that Claude users who installed the Muse app were using Claude more than before, though still for fewer minutes per day than they spent on the Meta product. Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at scouncil@businessinsider.com , or over text, Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 415-757-8198. Use a personal email address, a non-work WiFi network, and a non-work device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.