Tech Explained: What is Claude Cowork, why are software companies in fear of just one AI tool? – Anthropic Claude Co Work Impact On Indian Us It Software Companies Stock Market Crash
Summary
Last week was no less than a nightmare for the Indian IT sector. About Rs 1.5 lakh crore disappeared from the market cap of the country’s five largest IT companies in one fell swoop. The thing to note is that the reason for this huge devastation is not a major recession, but an American AI…
Last week was no less than a nightmare for the Indian IT sector. About Rs 1.5 lakh crore disappeared from the market cap of the country’s five largest IT companies in one fell swoop. The thing to note is that the reason for this huge devastation is not a major recession, but an American AI company Anthropic. There are only 2,500 employees in this company, whereas about 15 lakh people work in the top-5 IT companies of India. Claude Cowork, a new product from Anthropic, has become the main reason for creating fear in the minds of investors around the world.
What is Claude Cowork?
Till now we used chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini to ask questions or get reports written. But the ‘Cloud Co-Work’ launched by Anthropic is more advanced than these. Where a chatbot gives you information that you have to copy-paste, ‘co-work’ directly becomes a part of your computer system.
In simple words, a chatbot is like a ‘freelancer’ whom you employ, while a ‘co-worker’ is a junior employee in your office. It has 12 different plug-ins that can automate tasks like coding, marketing, legal, and accounting.
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Infosys – Photo: PTI
Is the end near for software companies?
Due to this new AI tool, there has been a huge fall in the shares of ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) companies in America. In olden times, software like MS Office were loaded through CD, but now they run on the internet, this is called SaaS. Investors fear that when AI can create and maintain software itself, why will people give money to these companies? Market experts have named this situation as ‘SaaS-pocalypse’, which means the cataclysm of software business.
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TCS – Photo : Agency
Why is the threat greater for Indian IT companies?
The major business model of Indian IT companies is based more on its maintenance than on software development. Here work is billed on an hourly basis and a large number of people are engaged in the process. When the need to develop software for companies will reduce due to Claude Cowork AI tools, the need for its maintenance will also reduce. In such a situation, it will have a direct impact on software companies whose work is related to maintenance.
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Business is more at risk than jobs – Photo: Adobestock
More threat to business than jobs
The pace of recruitment in IT companies has already slowed down. This year, big IT companies have made a net recruitment of only 17 people in the first nine months of the financial year 2025-26. But experts believe that the real crisis is not only on jobs but on the business model. Indian companies still earn based on ‘mapower’ i.e. number of people, number of hours worked, number of bills. But when AI turns hours’ work into minutes, both billings and earnings will fall.
Still, hope is not completely lost. Experts believe that Indian IT companies will gradually adapt themselves to this change. The need for consultancy services to implement, manage and customize AI will continue and this could be their new path.
