Four AI assistants that work while you don't

An AI agent is a program that doesn't just answer questions but carries out tasks itself: sending emails, filling out forms or scheduling meetings. Since August 2026, four major companies have each launched their own take on such an agent.

The four agents

Anthropic's Claude Duet launched as a preview on October 22 (another source gives October 21). It doesn't wait for you to write to it. It sends a daily overview and only reaches out when something needs attention. Duet has access to more than 6,000 connections to other services, including Gmail, Slack, QuickBooks and Stripe. For now it is open only to users in the US via a waitlist and is included with Pro and Max subscriptions.

xAI's Grok Bot opened for testing in August for subscribers to SuperGrok Heavy, Cursor Ultra and Cursor Teams Premium. It has its own cloud computer, remembers conversations and preferences, and can be trained by being shown a workflow. Businesses get access via a waitlist. The price of Grok Bot has not been disclosed.

Meta's Muse arrived on September 8 and can shop, plan trips, send emails and keep an eye on prices, among other things. There is a free tier with limited use, while Power costs $20 a month and Maximum costs $100. Muse is available in the US and Canada, and Amazon has blocked it from its shopping platform.

OpenAI's Dots arrived three weeks after Muse. It is connected to ChatGPT, Work and Codex and can manage ongoing research and recurring tasks. Pricing starts at $100 a month for Pro and runs $100-125 per user for Business and Enterprise. Dots is rolling out to Pro users outside the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, and Enterprise is still in beta.

You still have to approve

All four are built to ask permission before doing anything sensitive. Duet shows what it intends to do before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs or deletes, and a special safeguard is meant to prevent sharing things like card details and health data without permission. Muse and Dots also require permission, and according to Engadget they can make mistakes and require oversight.

Who is best at what?

The blog post from MindStudio judges that Muse wins on simplicity, with a quick setup and a working personal assistant without having to build anything yourself. According to the blog, Dots is strongest at meeting scheduling in Slack, and Grok Bot is best suited to building a unified "operating system" for life or business. These are the blog's assessments, not results from a test.

For Danes, there is not much to take advantage of yet: Duet and Muse have so far been announced only for the US and Canada, while Dots is rolling out outside the EEA, Switzerland and the UK.