Duet serves as a competent helper, though it is occasionally jumpy in its behavior.
Generally, the products I review do not offer to help me summarize my experiences with them, but Duet is different.
Claude Duet represents Anthropic's AI agent for consumers, the latest effort by an AI company to demonstrate that agents can be valuable to non-coders. This has been an interesting few months; Instinct provided an impressive text-based assistant, Meta offered its cute Muse to assist with shopping, and OpenAI introduced the work-oriented Dots. Claude Duet is even more focused on work than these predecessors. It is also more consumer-friendly than Claude Cowork, which was in turn more consumer-friendly than Claude Code—the coding agent that sparked a major hype cycle earlier this year. I have been testing it for the past week while navigating a busy schedule of travel and work. It has been genuinely useful, occasionally borderline nagging, and highly eager to write about itself.
Duet remains a 'research preview' according to Anthropic, with access restricted to Pro, Max, and Ultra subscribers in the US, requiring a waitlist. It is not designed to order burritos; rather, it targets 'professionals and small business owners' and utilizes judgment to determine which tasks require immediate attention.
Similar to Meta's Muse, Duet features its own application (recently updated to fully support the iPhone Duo). Duet utilizes Claude's characteristically cheerful and minimalist design. The app is consumer-friendly and accessible. After connecting the desired productivity and chat services, it identifies opportunities to assist and suggests them as cards that can be swiped left to hide or right to accept—a kind of to-do list Tinder.
For the sake of testing, I fully integrated Duet by sharing access to my work email, calendar, Google Docs, and Slack. This provided ample material for analysis. Because our staff meeting summary is automatically emailed via Gemini and Duet had access to my inbox, it connected a point raised in a meeting to a direct Slack message. Duet also deduced my boss's identity through our shared weekly 1:1 Google Doc. AI is most useful when able to aggregate extensive data, and Duet wasted no time doing so.
Each morning, Duet greets me with a brief message and quick highlights for the day, such as reminding me to pack an item needed for a video shoot before my flight. Below that, it suggests to-dos, often concluding with an offer to draft a message or add an agenda item.
While often helpful, this interaction sometimes felt like dealing with a slightly neurotic personal assistant. In one instance, I emailed an interviewee stating the article would likely publish on Tuesday and I would send a link. I submitted my draft to editors late Monday night. Tuesday morning, Duet was visibly distressed. Even though it was before 9 AM, it pointed out that the story was still pending edits and I needed to address it to fulfill the promise. The concern was slightly misplaced. It failed to pick up on the nuance in my email implying a soft deadline or that it was 7 AM local time for my editor.
In other instances, it proved surprisingly helpful. I had missed that upcoming time off would leave me with only a couple of working days before a major draft was due. Duet proposed a solution, offered to update the Google Doc with weekly notes for my editor, and drafted a Slack message notifying him of the update. It even adopted 'my millennial habit of writing in all lowercase,' pointing it out in a self-congratulatory aside, and used a CMS abbreviation. However, it shortened 'signature' to 'sig,' which I never would, and made me laugh out loud. Regardless, the message was tagged with a 'sent with Claude' label.
Duet frequently volunteered to start my drafts, which I firmly reject. I prefer writing my own blogs myself. If you are not a writer, I can see how handling small writing tasks would be beneficial. However, it felt like a 'Spider-Man-pointing-at-Spider-Man' moment when the task was reviewing itself.
It was also slightly uncanny. Even setting aside the fact that I was writing about Duet, it is weird to know it can read all my emails, drafts, and Slack messages. I opted in to sharing this data, but seeing it in practice is different. I wonder if knowing an agent handles my calendar, to-do lists, and meeting attention would change my work habits, perhaps making me feel like a CEO. While I don't cherish creating calendar entries, I worry about feeling disconnected from the workplace.
I do not believe Duet or any other AI agent is quite ready to make us feel like CEOs. The word 'personal' in 'personal assistant' is key. A person understands what is urgent versus what isn't through tone, communicates norms sensibly, and is tactful. Anthropic's blog post notes they continue to 'test its judgment about when to message you,' so Duet may calibrate over time. However, AI is generally poor at understanding nuance or tone, and it is unclear if this will ever change.
For me, Duet clarified what I want AI to do versus what I don't. Communication occurs across emails, DMs, meetings, and shared docs. Having AI find overlooked discrepancies between these sources and point them out proactively is very helpful. I view it as a backstop for my organizational systems, not a replacement. I dislike it in the creative process. I want to find my own ways into topics, as Hank Green said regarding his reliance on AI. If you send a robot to do the legwork, you miss the chance to stumble upon something unexpected, which is part of the enjoyment. I certainly will not let an agent review itself.
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