Anthropic Launches Claude Duet, a Proactive Business AI Agent

Anthropic Launches Claude Duet: An AI Agent That Starts Working Before You Ask

Anthropic this week announced Claude Duet, a new standalone app (iOS, Android, and claude.ai) that takes a different approach to business AI agents: instead of waiting for a request, it monitors your connected apps in the background and starts acting on its own.

Built on the Opus 5.5 model, Duet can prepare a daily morning briefing, investigate unpaid invoices, draft customer follow-ups, build financial forecasts, and even create simple web apps, according to Anthropic. It connects to more than 6,000 tools and integrations through the Claude Marketplace, including QuickBooks, Stripe, HubSpot, DocuSign, Gusto (payroll), LinkedIn, Canva, and Shopify.

A real-world example: Shahs of Kabob, a US restaurant business with around 110 employees, already uses Duet for accounting, customer service, and marketing. Its owner describes it simply: it brings it all together, I do not need to open up 100 tabs.

Human Approval Stays in the Loop

Here is the critical detail for businesses: Duet can research information and prepare drafts independently, but before sending a message, making a payment, signing a document, or deleting anything, it must get explicit user approval. Some actions, like securities transactions or transfers between financial accounts, remain off-limits even with approval.

Pricing: Duet is included in the Pro (about $20/month) and Max ($100+/month) plans at no extra charge during the preview, notably cheaper than the roughly $100/month minimum for OpenAI's competing Dots product, though still pricier than Meta's free-to-start Muse, which has already passed 10 million US downloads in just 40 days.

It is worth noting Anthropic has not published benchmark results or cost-per-task figures yet, and the initial rollout targets individual professionals and small-to-medium businesses rather than large enterprises (no dedicated API or Enterprise tier yet).

Why it matters for small and medium businesses: This is another sign that the business AI agent market (alongside Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots) is becoming genuinely competitive and concrete, not just future promises, but tools already helping real businesses manage bookkeeping, payroll, and marketing. Still, it is wise to start with low-risk, easily verifiable tasks (like a daily briefing or an invoice follow-up draft) before expanding an agent's permissions.

Source: VentureBeat

Walmart Welcomes AI Shopping Agents Just as Amazon Shuts Them Out

In contrast to Amazon, which recently blocked AI agents from shopping on its site, Walmart this week unveiled Agent Gateway, a new MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that lets approved AI agents, including Meta's Muse, ChatGPT, and Gemini, search Walmart and Sam's Club inventory and make purchases on a customer's behalf, without sharing personal account details directly with the agent.

Next month, Walmart will also roll out Agent Profiles, letting customers link a dedicated profile to each AI agent they use, see its purchases separately from their own, and either require approval for every transaction or set a pre-authorized spending limit. Walmart's standard returns policy applies even to agent-made purchases, including cases where the agent gets it wrong.

Why it matters: For small businesses selling through platforms like Walmart, this is a clear signal that AI-agent-driven shopping is becoming a real traffic channel worth preparing for, not just a niche experiment.

Source: TechCrunch