1.5 How the two leaders realize it

In everyday life. Two banks both offer mobile check deposit. One puts it inside the main app. The other has a separate deposit app. The idea is the same, the packaging differs, and you check each bank's rules before relying on them.

The principle so far names no product. Here is how the two AI vendors this book covers put concepts 1.2 to 1.4 into practice today.

Anthropic, as verified 3 October 2026. On 16 September 2026 Anthropic combined Claude chat and Claude Cowork into one conversation, with no mode to pick.¹ Claude decides whether a request needs a quick answer or a task. Tasks keep running in the cloud after you close the laptop, and scheduled tasks run in the cloud too.² Cloud sessions are in beta.³ Each runs in its own isolated, temporary sandbox on Anthropic's servers. The sandbox cannot reach your home or company network, and it is destroyed when the session ends. The sandbox holds only session tokens that expire within hours. Calls to your connected apps are made from Anthropic's servers, outside the sandbox.⁴ Anthropic also documents local sessions, which run code in a virtual machine on your computer. Sessions, delivered files and documents built in the new Claude Docs and Claude Slides editors are saved to your account. Claude Desktop is the bridge to your own folders, browser and apps.⁴ By default, Claude asks before taking an action. Status: rolling out to Pro and Max first. Team and Free plans follow. Enterprise admins get at least 30 days' notice.¹

OpenAI, as verified 3 October 2026. OpenAI runs two surfaces next to chat. ChatGPT Work, launched 9 July 2026, is an agent that acts across your apps and files. It can keep working on a project for hours, and it turns a goal into finished slides, spreadsheets, documents and websites. It offers scheduled tasks, a built-in browser, and local files and apps through the desktop app.⁵ A dot is an always-on agent. OpenAI launched dots on 29 September 2026. Each dot has its own cloud computer and browser, which you can open to check its work. A dot keeps working between conversations, connects to apps through plugins, and carries context across ChatGPT, Slack and Teams. During what OpenAI calls proactive research, it uses only read-only tools. Custom Rules set what it may do alone, what needs approval and what is blocked. Activity View shows its work. Status: rolling out to Pro and Business Premium users in eligible markets, with an Enterprise beta. Each user starts with one primary dot, and OpenAI says more will follow.⁶

The differences that change a decision. Three matter.

1. Where the agentic work starts. In Claude, any conversation can become a task. In ChatGPT, you pick ChatGPT Work or a dot by name, and a dot can start ChatGPT Work tasks for you.⁶
2. How continuity is provided. A Claude task is briefed, runs, and ends. When the task is done inside a defined role with an owner, this is how a Delegated AI Worker does its work. Claude reaches standing work through schedules and routines (Chapter 9). A dot keeps its identity and context between conversations and takes initiative. That brings it close to a Standing AI Worker, one with a lasting identity, ongoing responsibilities and its own initiative. In both cases, continuity comes from the worker's identity and context, not from one machine staying on.
3. What you must verify yourself. Anthropic documents its session sandbox.⁴ OpenAI's launch post does not say how long a dot's computer, or the files on it, last.⁶ Check each AI vendor's help center before you rely on such details.

Which surface for which job. On OpenAI's side, the choice follows the ladder. Stay in ChatGPT chat for a question, a draft or an explanation you will read once. Start a ChatGPT Work task when a clear outcome should come back as a finished result, such as the invoice register. Also use ChatGPT Work when the work should run on a schedule. Use a dot when the work is ongoing and should continue between conversations, such as keeping track of a vendor inbox. Set its Custom Rules first, so you decide what it may do alone. On Anthropic's side the same choice happens inside one conversation, so your brief decides. Chapter 2 adds Space, where a team keeps the documents it edits together, and completes the comparison.

The invariant. On either runtime, four things stay true. A request is routed to answering or to working. Work runs in an execution environment you do not fully control. What you want to keep must be saved to a known place, and you must understand its retention and access rules. And durable state, personal or shared, is not the company's governed record.