Meta set the early pace in the personal-agent push when it launched Muse on Sept. 8. The consumer-focused service quickly became a meaningful foothold: Mark Zuckerberg said on Oct. 21 that more than 10 million people in the US and Canada had set up Muse agents in roughly six weeks, with about a quarter using it on a given day.¹

OpenAI followed on Sept. 29 with Dots, its own background-working agent. That left Anthropic facing a strategic problem: users may increasingly begin their daily digital chores with a rival’s assistant, even if they still prefer Claude for chat or work.²

On Wednesday, Anthropic answered with Claude Duet, a research-preview app aimed squarely at professionals and small-business owners. Rather than selling an all-purpose concierge, it is positioning Duet as a work companion that watches connected apps, sends morning briefs, drafts follow-ups and tackles tasks ranging from scheduling to dashboards and forecasts. Anthropic says the agent “comes to you with what needs your attention” and checks before acting on a user’s behalf.³

The pitch is proactive, not autonomous at any cost. Duet runs on Opus 5.5 and connects to 6,000 connectors and plugins, according to Addy Osmani, while continuing to work after a user steps away.Addy Osmani (addyosmani)⁴ Yet Anthropic acknowledges the early version can “misread a thread or miscalibrate what’s urgent,” and says it is not as capable at personal errands such as booking tickets.⁵

That contrast is the crux of the race. Meta has momentum with a mass-market agent; OpenAI spans consumer and enterprise use. Anthropic is wagering that administrative work—rather than reservations and errands—will be the more durable entry point. For now, access is limited to a waitlist for eligible Pro and Max subscribers, making Duet less an instant challenger than a carefully controlled bid to catch up.