Anthropic's AI plug-ins shake India's staffing-intensive IT sector; stocks dive 6%
· CNA · JoinRead a summary of this article on FAST.
Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.
Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST
FAST
Feb 4 : Shares of Indian IT exporters slumped 6.3 per cent on Wednesday, tracking losses in global software stocks, after Anthropic launched new tools that heightened concerns over AI-driven disruption in the data and professional services industry.
U.S.-based Anthropic on Friday launched plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent to automate tasks across legal, sales, marketing and data analysis, triggering a selloff in U.S. and European data analytics and software stocks and deepening concerns in India’s $283 billion IT sector, whose labour-intensive model relies on deploying large workforces for client projects.
The Indian IT sub‑index was on track for its worst day since March 2020, with all 10 constituents in the red. Infosys led declines with a 7.3 per cent drop.
Other heavyweights TCS and Wipro fell 5.8 per cent and 3.9 per cent respectively, while HCLTech was down 5.1 per cent.
"As Indian enterprises integrate Claude for critical coding workflows, dependency on large vendor teams may decline, squeezing billable hours and margins," said Systematix Group analyst Ambrish Shah.
Anthropic’s advanced AI systems also threaten entry‑level talent pool at Indian IT firms by replacing routine development and testing tasks, he added.
Newsletter
Week in Review
Subscribe to our Chief Editor’s Week in Review
Our chief editor shares analysis and picks of the week's biggest news every Saturday.
Sign up for our newsletters
Get our pick of top stories and thought-provoking articles in your inbox
Get the CNA app
Stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories
Get WhatsApp alerts
Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app