Indian tech stocks slump as Anthropic's AI tool raises global staffing concerns

Persistent Systems

04/02/2026 04:20

Feb 4 (Reuters) -
Shares of Indian IT exporters .NIFTYIT slumped 6% on Wednesday, tracking losses in global software stocks, after AI developer Anthropic launched new tools that heightened concerns over AI-driven disruption in the data and professional services industry.

Anthropic
launched
 plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent on Friday that would automate tasks across legal, sales, marketing and data analysis, triggering a
significant selloff
 among U.S. and European data analytics, professional services and software companies.

The Indian IT sub-index joined the rout on Wednesday and was set for its worst day since May 2022.  All 10 of its constituents were in losses, led by a 7% drop in  software services exporter Persistent Systems PERS.NS.

Heavyweights TCS TCS.NS and Infosys INFY.NS were down 5.2% and 5.8%, respectively, while Wipro WIPR.NS fell nearly 4%.

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

((Kashish.Tandon@thomsonreuters.com; 8800437922;))