Anthropic has launched a research preview of Claude Duet, a new AI assistant that can monitor connected applications, complete tasks in the background and proactively alert users when it identifies issues that need attention.

The company said Claude Duet is aimed at professionals and small business owners, with access initially available to US-based Claude Pro and Max subscribers through a waitlist. The service is available as a standalone app for iOS and Android, as well as through Claude.ai.

Unlike a traditional chatbot, Anthropic said, Claude Duet works continuously in the background. It reviews connected apps every few hours, sends users a daily briefing of important updates and can complete tasks ranging from scheduling meetings to creating dashboards, financial forecasts and web applications.

Anthropic said Claude Duet runs on Claude Opus 5.5 and uses a virtual machine with its own browser, allowing it to continue working even when a user's device is offline.

The company emphasised that users remain in control of important actions. Claude Duet requires approval before sending messages, signing documents, making payments or deleting data. It also blocks certain activities, including securities trading and transferring money between accounts.

Anthropic said the assistant inherits users' existing Claude memory, skills and connected applications, and can integrate with more than 6,000 connectors and plugins through the Claude Marketplace. These include Gmail, Slack, QuickBooks, Stripe, HubSpot, Shopify, Canva and DocuSign.

The company also announced additional security measures for the research preview. Anthropic said Claude Duet never has direct access to users' passwords or sign-in credentials and uses new safeguards to prevent sensitive information, such as credit card numbers and government identification details, from being shared. The company added that external security specialists have tested the system as part of its security programme.

Anthropic acknowledged that Claude Duet remains an early version and said it may not always judge priorities correctly. The company plans to use feedback from early users to refine the product before a wider release.

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