Anthropic released Claude Cowork, a legal AI plugin that automates core legal workflows by connecting to enterprise apps and providing issue spotting, redlining guidance, and language suggestions to speed up contract review and compliance tasks.

The market reacted sharply to the launch, with Indian IT ADRs and major software names dropping as investors priced in disruption to traditional legal-tech and software models.

Analysts dubbed the selloff a ‘SaaSpocalypse,’ noting that the decline swept roughly $285 billion in software, legal tech, and financial services stocks in a single session and hit big names like Thomson Reuters, RELX, and LegalZoom.

Observers acknowledge the shift toward democratizing GenAI in law, while stressing that the strategy and delivery approach will determine whether disruption accelerates.

Experts say incumbent legal-tech vendors still hold advantages in proprietary data and domain expertise, which could cushion near-term disruption.

Industry commentators invite ongoing engagement and preview AI trend updates, including practical use cases and regulatory shifts.

Anthropic differentiates by building its own models for specific industries rather than relying on third-party models, aiming to challenge traditional legal info providers and other AI startups.

By building models at scale, Anthropic could bundle models, wrappers, and workflows directly to customers, reshaping the legal-tech vendor landscape.

Analysts view this as an opening salvo that could push foundation-model firms to become platform vendors for legal work, challenging the traditional vendor model.

AI-driven enterprise software is expected to embed more deeply into core operations, prompting strategic shifts while raising ethical and regulatory considerations.

Going forward, incumbents should leverage content and relationships while adopting AI, firms must balance efficiency with avoiding commoditization, and AI providers should prioritize accuracy, security, and trusted deployment.

Large firms tend to favor established brands and customized AI solutions, while smaller firms may experiment with new AI tools, with examples like Freshfields pursuing customized approaches.