The AI agent sector intensified in early 2026 as the simultaneous arrival of Anthropic’s Claude Cowork and Peter Steinberger’s OpenClaw catalyzed significant interest across the global technology community. While both represent a shift toward independent desktop agents, they operate on different ends of the permission spectrum. OpenClaw grants deep system-level access to files, applications, and chat histories, whereas Claude Cowork functions within secure, user-authorized boundaries to manage file organization, data processing, and document generation.