Overview
- Anthropic expanded its Claude Cowork agent with 11 plugins that automate tasks across legal, sales, marketing and data analysis, including contract review, NDA triage and compliance checks, while stating the legal tool does not provide legal advice.
- Traders and analysts identified Anthropic’s legal plugin as a catalyst for sharp declines in legal-data and software names, with RELX and Wolters Kluwer down roughly 13%–17% and Thomson Reuters sliding 16%–19% on Tuesday.
- Broader software and data stocks fell across the U.S. and Europe as investors questioned AI monetisation, with Salesforce, ServiceNow and Adobe dropping 5%–8% and two State Street software-and-data ETFs shedding about US$300.6 billion in value.
- Advertising and information groups were hit as well, including Publicis down more than 9%, Omnicom off 6%–11%, and London-listed data and services firms such as Experian, London Stock Exchange Group and Pearson down between roughly 6% and 12%.
- The sell-off extended to Asia on Wednesday, with Japan’s TIS plunging over 15% and India’s Nifty IT index down nearly 6% as major names like TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech and Wipro fell 5%–7%, reflecting mounting concern over AI-driven workflow automation.