Anthropic Launches Claude Dispatch: Control Your AI Agent From Your Phone in a Cab

Anthropic has launched "Dispatch" — a new feature in Claude Cowork that lets you send tasks to your desktop AI agent directly from your smartphone.

What Is Dispatch?

Dispatch lets you text your desktop AI agent from your phone and return to finished work. The feature launched on March 17, 2026 as a research preview inside Claude Cowork.

Typical use cases:

• Preparing reports while in a meeting
• Organizing files and folder structures while commuting
• Kicking off research tasks on your way home
• Running background analyses overnight

How It Works

The user sends a text command from the Claude mobile app. Claude Dispatch receives it, interprets the task, and delegates it to the Claude Cowork agent on the desktop PC — which has access to local files, applications, and network resources.

All communications are encrypted, and Anthropic emphasizes that users retain full control over the permissions granted to the agent.

CIO Perspective

For enterprise leaders, this is particularly interesting for two reasons:

1. Asynchronous AI work: Employees can kick off CPU-intensive AI analyses from a meeting room without waiting at their PC.

2. Mobile-first AI workflow: Workstations and AI agents connect across devices — a clear step toward more seamless human-AI interaction.

Availability

Claude Dispatch is currently in research preview and requires access to Claude Cowork. Broader rollout is expected during Q2 2026.

Anthropic positions Dispatch as a natural step toward more autonomous AI — where the user is the orchestrator, not the operator.