Legacy financial software stocks crater as AI automation threat becomes concrete reality. February 4th brought a brutal reality check to financial software companies. A $285 billion stock selloff hammered names like RELX, Experian, and London Stock Exchange Group after Anthropic unveiled AI tools that automate legal research. The next day, the company doubled down with Claude Opus 4.6—a model engineered specifically for financial analysis.
If you’re wondering whether AI will disrupt professional services, the market just gave you a $285 billion answer.
Performance Numbers That Actually Matter
Concrete benchmarks show Claude excelling at tasks that consume analyst workdays.
Claude Opus 4.6 isn’t another chatbot with financial aspirations. It scored 60.7% on the Finance Agent benchmark and 76.0% on TaxEval—tests that measure real-world SEC filing analysis and tax reasoning.
More importantly, it showed a 23 percentage point improvement on Anthropic’s internal Real-World Finance evaluation, which covers ~50 investment and financial analysis scenarios. AIG compressed their underwriting review timelines by 5x while boosting data accuracy from 75% to over 90%. Those aren’t marketing metrics—they’re workflow transformations.
Beyond Chat: Complete Financial Ecosystem
Integrated tools target every stage of financial analysis workflows.
Anthropic built more than a better language model. The Cowork desktop app lets Claude access your folders directly, handling multiple analyses simultaneously while you guide the process. Excel integration brings AI directly into spreadsheets for pivot tables, charts, and financial modeling.
The beta PowerPoint plugin creates institutional-quality investment memos and pitch decks. Meanwhile, the Financial Analysis Solution connects Claude to FactSet, S&P Global, Morningstar, Databricks, and other major data providers through pre-built connectors. It’s like having an analyst who never sleeps and reads everything.
Institutional Validation Accelerates
Global financial giants deploy Claude for mission-critical operations.
Marquee customers provide the credibility that benchmark scores can’t. Bridgewater Associates built an Investment Analyst Assistant using Claude that generates Python code and creates data visualizations. Commonwealth Bank of Australia partnered with Anthropic for fraud prevention and customer service enhancement.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund (NBIM) calls their collaboration “foundational” to becoming a global AI innovation leader. When institutions managing trillions trust Claude with high-stakes analysis, the technology has crossed from experimental to operational.
The $350 Billion Question
Anthropic and OpenAI race for professional services dominance while legacy vendors scramble.
Anthropic’s $350 billion fundraising discussions pale next to OpenAI’s $830 billion valuation talks, but both numbers reflect massive capital betting on AI’s professional services takeover. Scott White, Anthropic’s head of product, says financial services represents an area “we’re going to lean in really hard” on.
The race isn’t just about better AI—it’s about which company captures the multi-trillion-dollar knowledge work market before legacy providers figure out how to compete. February’s market selloff suggests investors think that window is closing fast.
