Anthropic, a US-based company that builds advanced AI systems designed to work safely and reliably inside organisations, drew global attention this week after it released new automation tools that showed how quickly AI is moving beyond chatbots and into full-scale workplace automation. The announcement triggered sharp reactions in financial markets as it challenged long-held assumptions about how software and outsourcing businesses operate.
At the centre of the launch was an upgraded AI agent called Claude Cowork. Unlike earlier AI tools that mainly answered questions or helped with writing, this system is designed to carry out real work across many business functions. Anthropic introduced plug-ins that allow the AI to handle specialised tasks in areas such as sales, marketing, legal work, finance, customer support, data analysis and internal knowledge search. These plug-ins connect the AI directly to a company’s tools and information, allowing it to act inside existing workflows rather than sitting on the sidelines.
For example, in legal teams, the AI can review contracts, sort non-disclosure agreements and support compliance checks at much higher speed. In sales, it can help identify potential customers, prepare outreach, manage pipelines and support deal planning. In customer support, it can sort and prioritise incoming requests, research answers from multiple internal systems, draft responses and turn solved issues into knowledge articles to reduce future work. Enterprise search allows employees to search across emails, documents, chats and internal systems with a single question, treating the entire organisation as one connected knowledge base.
What made investors nervous was not just what the tools could do, but what they implied. These AI agents are built to automate work that has traditionally been done by large teams of people using software platforms or outsourced service providers. This raised fears that AI could bypass both software companies and IT services firms by delivering results directly, with fewer people and lower ongoing costs.
India’s IT services sector came under particular pressure because its business model has long relied on large workforces delivering services over extended periods. Many of these services involve tasks such as data handling, testing, documentation, support and process management, all areas where AI automation is advancing rapidly. The concern is that if AI can complete the same work faster and with fewer people, traditional headcount-based billing models may face long-term pressure.
The impact is not limited to IT services. Legal software firms, information providers and other labour-intensive knowledge businesses also face uncertainty. Anthropic stands out because it builds the underlying AI models and can customise them for specific industries.
Anthropic’s new AI tools offered a glimpse of how quickly the structure of modern office work could change.