Cursor Is Developing an AI Agent to Compete With Claude Cowork

Cursor is developing an AI agent codenamed Sand aimed at non-developers, according to a report from The Information. The tool is designed as a general-purpose assistant capable of managing everyday tasks such as emails, texts and document processing, positioning it as a direct competitor to Anthropic's Claude Cowork. The report said the shift marks a significant pivot for Cursor, which has built its foothold as a leading AI-powered code editor. The company is looking to broaden its reach beyond the developer community. With Sand, Cursor aims to offer a personalized assistant that handles office productivity workflows, from managing spreadsheets to summarizing lengthy documents. The product could disrupt the market currently dominated by Anthropic's Claude Cowork, which enables a user to outline a set of tasks for Claude to complete without human input. An example of a job Cowork could complete would be scanning email and generating a report outlining the most pressing emails needing replies and scheduling time in Google Calendar to read draft replies generated for each. Sand comes on the heels of SpaceX's pending acquisition of Cursor for $60 billion, which The Information reports could influence whether Sand will come to market or when Cursor intends to release it.