New players added to the AI proxy circuit! Anthropic launches Claude Duet preview to challenge OpenAI and Meta

The Zhitong app learned that Anthropic announced the launch of a preview of Claude Duet on Wednesday. This is an artificial intelligence agent product for small businesses and professionals, and is expected to compete with OpenAI's Dots and Meta's Muse.

According to Anthropic, Claude Duet can send users daily briefings, keep an eye on connected apps, and perform a range of tasks such as building dashboards, scheduling meetings, and creating financial forecasts. The company said in a blog post that the agent will actively prompt users what matters need attention, complete tasks assigned by users, continue to work when users leave, and confirm before acting on behalf of users.

Claude Duet's launch comes at a time when competitor products are beginning to be favored by users. Meta refers to its Muse as a “personal AI agent,” and the product quickly rose to the top of the Apple App Store list after launch last month; OpenAI launched Dots, an “always-on agent” at the annual developer conference a few weeks later. In terms of market positioning, Meta mainly promotes its agent products to consumers, while OpenAI's products take into account both the corporate and consumer markets. Anthropic said on Wednesday that since Claude Duet mainly targets work scenarios, personal matters such as booking tickets are “not that strong.”

Anthropic and OpenAI have long been fierce rivals. Over the past year, the two sides have frequently released competitive models and competed for corporate market share. Meta, on the other hand, is adjusting its AI strategy and investing billions of dollars to compete in cutting-edge fields. With the rise of personal AI agents, Meta hopes to capitalize on this momentum. Meta released its third-quarter earnings report after the US stock market on Wednesday. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts that in the past month and a half, more than 10 million people in the US and Canada have “set up Muse personal agents.” Muse's initial success helped Meta end in September with its best monthly stock market performance since 2022.

Anthropic said on Wednesday that Claude Duet is still in its early stages and may “misread conversation clues or misjudge the level of urgency.” The company opened the Claude Duet waitlist on the same day, saying that eligible users can access it through a standalone app or Claude website; Pro and Max subscribers can use the product during the preview period.