Software stocks made a comeback on Tuesday after Anthropic hosted its enterprise agents event, where it revealed new partnerships, quelling some investor fears that the sector could be displaced by artificial intelligence.
The AI startup launched new updates to Claude Cowork that allow companies to integrate the productivity tool into a host of enterprise apps, such as Salesforce-owned Slack, Intuit, Docusign, LegalZoom, FactSet and Google‘s Gmail.
Organizations can also deploy customizable plugins across sectors like financial analysis, engineering and human resources, Anthropic said.
Salesforce shares jumped 4% following the Anthropic announcement while Docusign and LegalZoom eached gained more than 2%. Thomson Reuters‘ stock surged more than 11% and FactSet shares rose nearly 6%.
Salesforce, Docusign and Thomson Reuters one-day stock chart.
Analysts at Wedbush Securities said in a Tuesday research note that Anthropic’s event showed the competition risk to software from AI is “overblown.”
They argued that models aren’t capable of replacing entire workflows that remain “deeply embedded” in software infrastructure.
“The reality is that these new AI tools will not rip and replace existing software ecosystems and data environments with these AI tools only as useful as the data it can reach,” the analysts wrote.
Anthropic’s recent product rollouts have sent software and cybersecurity stocks tumbling in recent weeks as investors digested the looming threat of AI tools to those business models.
CrowdStrike closed largely flat Tuesday, but many of those stocks climbed higher. Okta and Cloudflare rose about 2%. Zscaler and Tenable each gained about 4% and SentinelOne climbed 3%.
IBM shares sold off heavily on Monday after Anthropic touted a tool that could automate aspects of a programming language run on IBM’s computers. IBM’s stock rebounded Tuesday, climbing more than 2%.
— CNBC’s Ashley Capoot and Kate Rooney contributed reporting to this story.
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