Anthropic has entered the race to build personal AI agents, joining rivals OpenAI and Meta in an intensifying race to develop digital assistants that can anticipate individual users’ needs and take action without waiting for a prompt.

Known as Claude Duet, Anthropic said that its always-on personal AI agent is designed for professionals and small business owners. Unlike OpenAI’s Dots and Meta’s Muse, Claude Duet is less capable of executing personal tasks like booking reservations. It can connect to more than 6,000 external apps, including Canva and DocuSign.

The distinguishing feature of Claude Duet, according to Anthropic, is its judgment. Instead of waiting for instructions, Claude Duet sends users a morning briefing drawn from information in their email inbox, calendar, and other apps.…