What happened
Anthropic has introduced a new app called Claude Duet, aimed squarely at professionals and small businesses that want help with managing and handling tasks. According to TechCrunch, the company positions Duet as an agent rather than a personal assistant. Anthropic draws a clear line between Duet and consumer agents such as Instinct: Duet is described as not being good at errands or booking tickets, and it does not show its browser activity in real time. Instead, it builds daily briefings, creates dashboards, and suggests actions based on a user's own data.
Duet is built on the Claude Opus 5.5 model and can connect to more than 6,000 connectors and plugins through the Claude Marketplace. It can also make online purchases on a user's behalf via Stripe's Link digital wallet or Shopify's Shop Pay. For now, it is available on iOS, Android, and the web through Claude.ai, limited to Pro and Max customers in a research preview that requires joining a waitlist.
Why it matters for SMEs
TechCrunch notes that the wider market is moving beyond chat-style assistants towards agents that can work on a user's behalf, with rivals such as Meta Muse and OpenAI Dots also targeting business use cases. For a small company in Malta, the appeal is practical: software that quietly monitors ongoing work and completes background tasks through its own virtual machine, returning to you for approval when needed.
Just as important are the limits. Anthropic says sensitive steps like payments require user approval, and Duet will not trade securities or move money between accounts. The company also released a new classifier that checks each message to prevent sensitive information from leaking, and by default the agent refuses requests for credit card numbers and government identification. For owner-run firms handling client data under GDPR, those guardrails deserve attention before any rollout.
A real-life example
Picture a small accountancy practice in Sliema. Each Monday, the owner currently spends an hour pulling together the week ahead: which clients have filings due, which invoices are overdue, and what the team should prioritise. An agent like Duet, connected to the firm's existing tools through the Claude Marketplace, could assemble that into a single daily briefing and a simple dashboard. The owner still reviews everything and signs off on anything sensitive — the agent flags, suggests, and prepares rather than acting alone. The result is less time spent gathering information and more time advising clients. The key is starting small: one repetitive weekly task, clear approval checkpoints, and a careful eye on what data the agent is allowed to touch.
What next
Because Duet is still a waitlisted research preview restricted to Pro and Max customers, Maltese businesses should treat it as something to watch and test rather than deploy at scale. The sensible path is to map out which routine tasks eat your week, confirm what client data would be involved, and run a limited trial before trusting any agent with wider access.
Brain.mt can help you using AI for your business. Contact me for more information. I also offer dedicated workshops and training about this subject, so your team can adopt tools like these with confidence and the right safeguards in place.
