Claude’s Entry into Finance

On February 24, Anthropic, an American AI startup, announced that its Claude Cowork has added several plugins covering financial modeling, stock research, investment banking, private equity, and wealth management.

Industry insiders suggest that this could be the most comprehensive AI toolkit for finance professionals to date. It goes beyond simple Q&A, providing a truly integrated intelligent assistant that allows users to transform into Wall Street analysts with just one click.

The company stated that these plugins have been uploaded to a GitHub repository for open-source access.

In contrast to earlier sentiments of “AI killing software,” Anthropic emphasized “collaboration rather than replacement” this time. Some vendor stocks saw an uptick following the announcement.

Earlier in February, Anthropic released a corporate legal plugin, which intensified fears of AI replacing sectors like SaaS, leading to sell-offs in major software companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle, and Intuit. Wall Street even coined the term “SaaSpocalypse” to describe this phenomenon.

However, Anthropic’s approach to the finance sector highlights collaboration. Scott White, head of Anthropic’s enterprise products, stated that Claude aims to deliver better outcomes for clients rather than replace them, emphasizing that the product is not designed to control every workflow.

This philosophy is reflected in the stock performance of its partners. On February 25, several financial data service providers associated with Anthropic saw their stock prices rise: Thomson Reuters by 10.31%, FactSet by 2.55%, and Salesforce by 3.41%, marking two consecutive days of gains following the plugin launch.

Anthropic has disclosed more of its partners, including Daloopa, Morningstar, S&P Global, FactSet, Moody’s, MT Newswires, Aiera, London Stock Exchange Group, PitchBook, Chronograph, and Egnyte.

Overall, on February 25, the U.S. financial and fintech sectors experienced a rise. According to Wind data, the U.S. Financial Index increased by 1.54%, the non-bank financial index rose by 1.27%, and the financial services index gained 2.47%. In the fintech sector, the Nasdaq Fintech Index rose by 2.21%, with major card companies like VISA, Mastercard, and American Express also seeing increases.

However, on February 26, Hong Kong’s fintech sector showed a lackluster performance, with the CSI Hong Kong Fintech Index slightly down by 0.32%. Among major stocks, ZhongAn Online fell by 1.14%, Paradigm Intelligence by 0.79%, and Yaocai Securities by 4.17%, likely influenced by the declines in the Hang Seng Index (-1.44%) and the Hang Seng Tech Index (-2.87%).

Anthropic’s plugin suite includes five tools: financial analysis (producing DCF and LBO models), investment banking (drafting pitch summaries and process letters), stock research (writing research reports and screening new targets), private equity (identifying and screening deals, generating due diligence checklists), and wealth management (preparing client meetings and developing financial plans).

Notably, on February 23, Anthropic accused three Chinese AI companies of “industrial-scale distillation” of Claude’s core capabilities. This accusation was met with mockery from Elon Musk, who pointed out that Anthropic had previously paid billions in damages for large-scale data theft.

Prior to this, the software sector had experienced a nearly four-month correction, with Wind data indicating a 29.17% decline in the U.S. software sector from late October to now.

However, on February 25, the U.S. software sector saw a slight rebound, with Wind U.S. Software rising by 2.91% and the U.S. SaaS Index increasing by 2.65%. Major companies like Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Intuit, and Adobe also saw gains, suggesting a potential easing of the “AI kills SaaS” sentiment.

Conversely, on February 26, the Wind Hong Kong SaaS Index fell by 1.37%, with major stocks like Kingsoft, Mobvista, China Software International, and Fubo Group declining, although Kingdee International managed a 0.51% increase.

Meanwhile, there are views that Claude’s entry into finance could directly impact repetitive roles in the industry, such as data organization for investment banking analysts and account reconciliation for wealth management professionals.

Additionally, on February 25, following its acquisition of Bun, Anthropic announced the acquisition of Seattle-based AI startup Vercept to enhance the perception and interaction capabilities of its agent tool, “Computer Use.”

CITIC Securities commented on February 26 that Anthropic’s recent enterprise-level plugin platform and Claude Cowork platform reflect a relationship of integration rather than replacement with software vendors. The narrative of “AI eroding software” remains largely theoretical, lacking fundamental logic and common sense support.

Huatai Securities noted on February 25 that concerns over AI’s disruptive potential are impacting the software application industry. Prior to this round of adjustments, AI-related sectors were at historically high valuations, and the commercial software sector was also not undervalued. This triggered a concentrated release of pressures. However, the latest financial reports from leading software companies remain robust, and if AI can be internalized, it may even benefit them. For the recently adjusted SaaS sector, the market may gradually differentiate between “thin-function SaaS that can be replaced by AI” and “data and execution foundations that remain indispensable in the AI era,” potentially revealing opportunities for those unfairly punished.