Anthropic Vertical Software Rollout Threatens Enterprise AI Builders

Anthropic’s introduction of industry-specific artificial intelligence tools threatens the business of companies that use its AI models to build their own tools, The Information reported Thursday (June 11).

The report highlighted 13 industry-specific tools introduced by Anthropic, starting with Claude Code in February 2025 and most recently adding agents for financial services, Claude for Legal and Claude for Small Business in May.

Anthropic did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

According to The Information, the threat to companies that build AI applications has risen as Anthropic has increased its share of the AI model market and rolled out its own applications.

The threat was also highlighted this week when Anthropic released one of its Mythos AI models and said it would degrade the model’s performance when customers use it to develop their own AI software or hardware, the report said.

While Anthropic used to notify its customers that it was going to introduce products that may compete with theirs, the company doesn’t always do that now, per the report.

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Companies that make AI-powered tools are responding in several ways. The report cited examples of firms that say that they build products that are better suited to how the industries they serve operate, that they meet their industries’ requirements for observability and other capabilities, and that they provide their customers with access to a variety of AI models, including options that may be most cost-efficient.

It was reported Monday (June 8) that the specter of AI disruption has brought dealmaking in the software sector to a halt.

The value of software deals dropped to $50 billion for the first five months of the year, from $88 billion during the same period in 2025. This was the lowest total for the January through May period since the pandemic, according to the report.

Industry executives said the decline in software buyouts is a sign of certainty that AI will alter software firms’ business models, as well as the challenge facing buyout groups in separating winning companies from losing ones.

PYMNTS reported May 5 that there is a growing emergence of a top-down software and corporate services deployment model in which technology is distributed across entire networks of companies in a single stroke. This represents a playbook that could reshape how software is bought, implemented and competed over.

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