On October 21, Anthropic opened a research preview of Claude Duet. Its announcement describes an app where Claude works as a proactive agent for "professionals and small business owners with more on their plates than they can track." This is Anthropic's own announcement, so treat the claims as the vendor's.
According to the article:
- What it does. It sends a short morning brief, checks connected apps every few hours, and messages you only when something needs attention. Tasks run in the background on its own virtual machine with its own browser.
- What it connects to. Named apps include Gmail, Slack, Intuit QuickBooks, Stripe, Gusto, HubSpot, Docusign and Shopify.
- When it asks first. "Before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document, or deletes anything, it shows you exactly what it's about to do and waits for your approval." Reading, drafting and preparing happen without asking. Some things are off-limits even with approval, "like trading securities or moving money between accounts."
- Access. It's "available by waitlist today, starting with US Pro and Max subscribers," and included in those plans.
Anthropic says it "still might misread a thread or miscalibrate what's urgent," and that more safety details will follow. The article doesn't address data retention or whether your data is used for training.
What it means for an SMB
- Borrow the approval list. Sending, paying, signing and deleting is a sensible short list of actions that always need a person. Our AI approval matrix helps you build your own.
- Decide what to connect first. Start with the least sensitive account, not your books.
- Ask about data before you join. Get answers on retention and training use in writing.