So here's a fun thing that happens in markets sometimes: a company you might not even be invested in announces a product update, and suddenly a bunch of other, completely different companies see their stock prices jump. That's what played out on Tuesday, when AI startup Anthropic dropped some news about its enterprise platform.
The update to its "Cowork" platform and Claude Enterprise is essentially about turning a large language model into a specialized corporate employee. The big headline for investors was the list of new enterprise software and data providers that are now integrated as connectors. Anthropic explicitly named DocuSign (DOCU), Similarweb (SMWB), FactSet, Salesforce's (CRM) Slack, and others like Google Workspace, Apollo, and Outreach.
Think of it as Anthropic building out the app store for corporate AI. If Claude is the smartphone, these are the must-have productivity apps it can now run.
Building a Private AI Toolbox
The technical details are where it gets interesting for businesses. Anthropic is now letting company admins build their own private plugin marketplaces. They can start from templates or build from scratch, all managed through a new "Customize" menu. It’s about control and specialization.
They've released a bunch of pre-built templates aimed at specific corporate functions: HR, Design, Engineering, and a whole suite for finance like Financial Analysis, Investment Banking, and Wealth Management. The idea is that you could spin up a Claude agent that acts as a junior equity researcher or a private equity analyst, pulling data from the integrated tools.
Another neat trick: Claude can now "orchestrate across Excel and PowerPoint," working on a task and passing context between the apps. It’s currently in a research preview for all paid plans. So your AI could potentially draft a report in Word, build the charts in Excel, and then assemble the slide deck in PowerPoint. That’s the kind of workflow automation that gets corporate IT departments excited.
A Week of AI Shockwaves
This isn't happening in a vacuum. Anthropic has been on a tear lately, and its announcements are starting to have measurable market impacts.
Just on Monday, shares of International Business Machines Corp (IBM) took a 13% dive. Why? Because Anthropic mentioned that its Claude Code tool could help companies modernize legacy COBOL systems. That’s a multi-billion-dollar market that IBM has comfortably owned for decades. The mere suggestion that AI might offer a new path forward spooked investors.
Then, last Friday, something analysts called an "AI Ghost Trade" hit the cybersecurity sector. News around Anthropic's Claude triggered sharp sell-offs in major players like CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (CRWD), Palo Alto Networks Inc (PANW), and Zscaler Inc (ZS). The fear is that AI-driven security tools could eventually disrupt or bypass the need for some traditional "legacy" vendor services.
It’s a classic case of market anxiety over technological disruption. However, not everyone is panicking. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called the cybersecurity sell-off an overreaction, arguing that AI actually represents the "biggest total addressable market opportunity" in the industry’s history. The thinking is that these companies will use AI to enhance their own products, not be replaced by it.
