Anthropic unveils Claude Duet, a proactive AI agent for Pro and Max subscribers

Anthropic wants Claude to stop waiting for you to type something. On October 21, 2026, the company introduced Claude Duet, a proactive AI agent built to work like a personal assistant or “chief of staff.” It is opening through a waitlist, and only for Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the US. The pitch is simple. Duet watches the apps where your work piles up, picks up tasks on its own, and checks with you before doing anything consequential. What Claude Duet actually does Duet runs on Claude Opus 5.5, the model Anthropic chose to power the new agent. It also pulls in the memory and skills already attached to a user’s existing Claude account. The agent is designed to monitor apps like email and calendars. From there, it can take on chores such as scheduling and invoicing without being prompted for each step. Users can keep talking to it continuously by text or voice. Meanwhile, it keeps working independently in the background on whatever is in its queue. The guardrail is human approval. Duet is built to request sign-off before taking major actions, and Anthropic stresses that oversight is necessary for important decisions involving financial or legal matters. Where to get it, and w...