Anthropic just shipped Claude Cowork, and Wall Street freaked out. The new tool can read files, organize folders and draft documents, plus industry-specific plugins for legal, finance and sales. Stocks for software and data companies tumbled Tuesday as investors priced in fewer subscriptions and more in-house AI work.**The backstory:**Claude Cowork isn't a chat widget, it's an assistant that lives in your files and workflows. It aims to replace the small, repetitive tools companies buy every quarter.
But there are reasons to calm down. Complex enterprise systems and regulated workflows aren’t trivial to replace. Integration, compliance, accuracy, and vendor relationships still matter. Remember when one competitor supposedly crushed a giant last year? The giant is still standing and even briefly hit a $5 trillion market cap.
Bottom line: Claude Cowork just moved the market by changing expectations. It didn’t kill the software industry in a day, but it raised a real question investors can't ignore - are many SaaS piles of recurring cash actually fragile? Prepare for more volatility, and for companies to promise AI-proof value faster than before.
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