Anthropic launches new enterprise offerings, raising the heat on software companies as anthropic doubles down
Anthropic on Tuesday unveiled a set of new enterprise capabilities for its Claude AI, a move that follows less than a month after the company launched plugins for the platform and has traders nervously reassessing software valuations. The announcements matter now because anthropic is expanding Claude’s reach into department-specific workflows, third-party integrations and code security, and the market reaction has been swift.
New Claude plugins target departments and existing business software
The company’s update, rolled out on Tuesday, added plugins designed for specific departments such as human resources and investment banking, and introduced tools that let customers create customized plugins tailored to company tasks. The new features also connect Claude to existing software, including Google’s Drive and Gmail (GOOG, GOOGL), DocuSign (DOCU) and LegalZoom (LZ). The plugin work comes less than a month after the firm initially launched plugins for Claude.
Matt Piccolella explains the "mini apps" approach and the enterprise marketplace
Matt Piccolella, who works on products at Anthropic, said the company expects a proliferation of plugins: "We think that the best way to drive enterprise AI adoption is to build dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of these plugins … We think of them almost as mini apps. " He added that "enterprises will be able to build hundreds of these things and then distribute them to their employees, " and that departments might want their own custom plugins for different workflows. Piccolella said Anthropic is also offering a marketplace for enterprises to host their own plugins so employees and teams can find the right plugins for their needs.
Anthropic moves send software and cybersecurity stocks tumbling
The new enterprise push has sent software stocks into a tailspin. ServiceNow (NOW) is off more than 23% since Anthropic initially announced Claude Cowork on Jan. 30. Salesforce (CRM) is down 22%, Snowflake (SNOW) has dropped 20%, Intuit (INTU) has fallen 33%, and Thomson (TRI) has declined 31%. On Feb. 20, Anthropic announced Claude Code Security, which "scans codebases for security vulnerabilities and suggests targeted software patches for human review. " That security announcement pushed cybersecurity shares lower: CrowdStrike (CRWD) and Zscaler (ZS) fell 7. 2% and 7. 1%, respectively, as of Monday's close, while Palo Alto Networks (PANW) dropped 2. 6%.
Rival moves and strategic questions for enterprise software
Anthropic’s deeper push into the enterprise space is sure to amplify fears on Wall Street that the company's products will eventually displace existing software companies. The broader industry dynamic, the coverage notes, is that Anthropic, OpenAI (OPAI. PVT) and other AI companies could either build their own software to rival established offerings or enable firms to develop custom in-house software—either scenario posing disruption for software vendors.
OpenAI launched its Frontier platform earlier this month, enabling users to build and launch AI agents that work with a company's existing software services. That move sits alongside Anthropic’s updates and raises immediate questions: How are Anthropic's AI announcements affecting software stock prices? Will AI companies actually replace traditional software providers? What new enterprise capabilities did Anthropic unveil for Claude? Which companies compete with Anthropic in enterprise AI?
Analysts' view and an unfinished thread in the record
Analysts pointed out that open-source software that companies can use to build their own custom enterprise offerings has been available for decades, yet the market for third-party software has expanded in that time. They also cast doubt on AI companies' ability to steal market share from dedicated enterprise software companies that are purpose-bu — unclear in the provided context.
