The shares of IT giants, including TCS, Infosys and Wipro, tanked on Monday after US AI giant Anthropic Claude launched a new artificial intelligence tool aimed at in‑house legal team. Indian IT stocks slumped up to 6%, bringing down the Sensex with it over 450 points and pushing Nifty below 25,700.
It was on January 30 that Anthropic, a U.S.-based AI startup, rolled out new AI automation tools. One of them targets legal workflows by turning into an AI assistant for corporate legal departments that can help with contract review, non‑disclosure agreement screening and routine document workflows. The tool is being offered as part of the firm’s Cowork suite and is intended to sit alongside in‑house lawyers, according to reports.
Though Anthropic’s legal tool has been marketed as an assistant that will help sift through contracts, flag key clauses, organise matter‑related documents, and generate standardised drafts for review by lawyers, it was enough to cause a sell-off despite the company stating that the analysis should still be checked by qualified legal professionals.
“AI-generated analysis should be reviewed by licensed attorneys before being relied upon for legal decisions,” the startup said.
Besides, the company also announced a number of other open-source tools to automate a range of professional activities, including sales and customer support.
The launches have stoked fears that these tasks, usually performed by humans, could affect the jobs in legacy IT services. Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited, told The Times of India: “The IT sell-off in the US yesterday will drag the Indian IT index too, constraining the rally in the Indian market. Since valuations continue to be high, there is no fundamental support for a sustained rally.”
“A trigger from monetary policy scheduled on 6th Feb is unlikely since the MPC is expected to retain the rates and stance with a dovish tone. The economy is now in a state where a monetary stimulus is not required,” he said.
