AI tools
ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney. You type, it answers. The work goes back into your head and your tabs. It usually doesn’t own the workflow or run your business process end-to-end.
Use cases
Run your small businesswith AI.
Operate like a giant. Stay lean.
You don't need a bigger team. You need a teammate that keeps working in the cloud. Duet is a cloud workspace where small businesses run on AI — your coworker lives on its own server, remembers context, builds what you ask for, and continues recurring workflows in the cloud.
The category
What "running a business with AI" actually means in 2026.
There are three categories of AI products today. Small businesses can struggle to tell them apart, which is why AI spend can drift into point tools. The gap between an AI tool and an AI coworker is the gap between a calculator and an operating checklist — one does the arithmetic, the other keeps the process moving.
AI assistants
Sidebar agents inside SaaS apps. Useful inside that one app. Helpless outside it. You still own the workflow, the context, and the glue.
AI coworkers
A teammate, not a tool. Has its own computer, its own memory, and its own task list. You assign work, it runs scheduled pieces under your rules, asks for approval when needed, and reports back. This is Duet.
The lean operator stack
Three new capabilities a small business gets when you start small.
Build
Your coworker writes the apps you have been meaning to build for too long. Customer dashboards, quote generators, lead-routing scripts, pricing calculators — anything you would hire a developer for, except now it can ship from the same workspace.
Run
Your coworker does not just build — it operates. Crons fire, inboxes get triaged, reports get sent, customers get followed up with. The ops layer you have been duct-taping with Zapier and Make becomes one place owned by one teammate.
Remember
Every conversation, every file, every decision lives in the same workspace. Your coworker today knows what your coworker agreed to earlier. There is no "starting over" with AI anymore — the context compounds.
How it works
Hire your first AI employee in five steps.
Tell Duet what your business does
Drop in your URL. Duet reads your website and builds a brief on who you are, what you sell, and who you sell to.
Pick a job to start with
Inbox triage. Outbound. Bookkeeping. Customer support. Do not try to automate everything — start with the one task that eats your week.
Run it manually with your coworker once
Walk through the workflow together. Show your coworker the inputs, the steps, the edge cases.
Run it on a schedule
Set a cron. Set a Slack or email trigger. Set a rule. The workflow you walked through once now runs on a schedule under your rules.
Add the next job
A small business with one AI coworker has ten jobs you can hand off. Each new job takes less than the last because your coworker already knows your business.
Pick your starting point
Use cases by who you are.
Every small business runs differently. The pages below walk through the jobs the people in each role hand off first — with the actual prompts they send, the outcomes they get back, and the answers to the questions every team asks before they hire.
Small Businesses
Small business owners
AI for small business
- Build and ship your business website
- Create internal apps without an engineer
Agencies
Creative agencies
AI for creative agencies
- Build client landing pages and microsites
- Draft design concepts and creative briefs
Founders
Startup founders
AI for startup founders
- Build a working MVP from a one-page spec
- Run market and competitor research
Sales Teams
Sales teams
AI for sales teams
- Enrich inbound leads as they arrive
- Run outbound email sequences with review rules
Operations
Operations teams
AI for operations teams
- Schedule meetings and coordinate calendars
- Automate document workflows
Pick a job
12 things a small business can hand to its AI coworker today.
Browse the full job tree at /use-cases/by-job, or jump straight to the one that eats your week.
Inbox triage
Read every email, summarize, draft replies, flag the urgent ones, label the rest for review.
Customer support
Respond to FAQs in your voice, escalate the real ones to you, log every ticket.
Lead research & outbound
Find prospects, enrich them, write personalized first touches, follow up on a schedule.
Bookkeeping
Categorize transactions, reconcile accounts, flag anomalies, generate monthly P&L.
Content marketing
Research, draft, schedule, repurpose across channels — all in your voice.
SEO operations
Keyword research, on-page audits, internal linking, monthly reports.
Newsletter operations
Pull the week's wins, draft the email, send it, track the results.
Invoicing & collections
Generate invoices, send them, follow up on late ones politely and persistently.
Onboarding new clients
Kickoff email, intake form, calendar booking, project setup — start-to-finish.
Internal reporting
Daily, weekly, or monthly business snapshots delivered to your inbox or Slack.
Document handling
Read contracts, extract terms, flag risks, file them in the right place.
App building
Small internal tools that you would never get around to building yourself.
Featured
One job, from each role.
A scan-friendly tour of the work Duet does most. Each row is a real job a real team handed off this quarter — follow the link to see the prompt, the outcome, and three more like it.
- Small BusinessesBuild and ship your business websiteReady for review from one brief
- AgenciesDraft design concepts and creative briefsMultiple directions from one brief
- FoundersBuild a working MVP from a one-page specDemo ready for review
- Sales TeamsEnrich inbound leads as they arriveInbound leads enriched without copy-paste
- OperationsSchedule meetings and coordinate calendarsOne message instead of calendar ping-pong
Honest comparison
How to choose: AI tools vs. AI coworker.
AI tools are often point solutions. Duet is the layer underneath. If your problem is "I want to write a poem about my dog" — use ChatGPT. If your problem is "I'm a freelance consultant trying to run a business while doing the actual work" — that's what Duet is for.
| If you're… | Best fit |
|---|---|
| Trying to draft one email faster | ChatGPT or Claude |
| Building one app to launch and forget | Lovable or Replit |
| Looking for a sidebar inside one SaaS | Sidebar agents (Claude for Small Business, etc.) |
| Running a coding agent inside the terminal | Claude Code |
| Trying to run an entire small business with leverage | Duet |
Why Duet
Built for small businesses, by small business.
We use Duet to run our own company — newsletters, support, sales, ops, internal apps, all on one Duet workspace. We didn't build a product for the Fortune 500. We built the tool we wished we had as a five-person company trying to ship like a fifty-person company.
Flat pricing, not seat tax
Your AI coworker is not a third headcount. Pay for usage, not for every human you invite to watch it work.
Its own server, not a shared pool
Every workspace runs on an isolated cloud server. Your data is not training somebody else’s model.
Persistent by default
Memory, files, decisions, and running crons all survive logout. That is how a coworker works.
Build + run in one place
You do not ship the app and then ship yourself the ops problem. The same workspace that builds your tool is the one that runs it.
FAQ
The questions worth pinning down.
What is an AI coworker?
An AI teammate that has its own computer, its own memory, and its own task list — not a chatbot you talk to one question at a time. Duet’s AI coworker lives on its own cloud server, remembers the work in your workspace, runs scheduled jobs, asks for approval when needed, and reports back. See the small business use cases for the jobs people hand off first.
How is Duet different from ChatGPT or Claude?
ChatGPT and Claude are AI tools — you ask a question, you get an answer. Duet is an AI coworker — you assign a job, it runs scheduled work, asks for approval when needed, and reports back. Duet remembers across conversations and can build and host apps for you. See the full lineup in our honest comparisons.
How is Duet different from Lovable or Replit?
Lovable and Replit build an app and leave. Duet builds an app and runs it. The same workspace that built your customer dashboard is the one that operates it, monitors it, and maintains it. See the full comparison in Duet vs. Lovable.
Can a non-technical small-business owner use Duet?
Yes — that’s who we built it for. You don’t write code. You describe what you want, and your AI coworker figures out the how. The small business use cases page walks through real prompts non-technical owners send every day.
What does it cost to "hire an AI coworker"?
Duet is usage-based and priced around the work your AI coworker runs. Compare it against the tools and labor it would actually replace for your workflow; see pricing for current plans.
How long does it take to get my first job automated?
Start by connecting one workflow and tightening it over time. The harder part is choosing which job to hand off first — we recommend inbox triage or outbound.
Is my business data safe?
Each Duet workspace runs on its own isolated server. Your data isn’t pooled with other customers. Your conversations aren’t used to train shared models. The deeper how it works lives in the guides.
Can my whole team share one AI coworker?
Yes. Duet is team-native — your AI coworker is shared across the team like a real teammate. Multiple humans, one AI, one shared context. Active teams include small businesses, agencies, and founders.
Does it integrate with my tools?
Duet connects to many apps through Composio and supports direct API calls for many services when credentials, permissions, and documentation are available; unusual or private APIs may need scoped setup. The integration list is documented in the guides.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Monthly plans, no contracts. Your workspace and data are yours to export. See pricing for the full terms.
Ready to operate like a giant?
You don't need a bigger team. You need a teammate who runs on schedules, from triggers, and between review passes while you're with customers.