Anthropic AI's Claude CoWork Sparks $285 Billion Market Panic, Dubbed 'SaaSocalypse'

• Anthropic's new AI tool, Claude CoWork, and its legal plugin triggered a massive sell-off in software, legal, tech, and financial sectors, wiping out $285 billion.
• Claude CoWork is an agentic AI assistant designed for non-technical professionals to automate tasks like report preparation, file organization, and document writing.
• The legal plugin, which automates contract review and compliance checks, caused particular alarm despite Anthropic's warning that results require attorney review.
• Investors fear AI tools like Claude CoWork will intensely compete with existing software, reducing subscriptions for data analytics and research products.
• Major companies like Thomson Reuters, LegalZoom.com, Relx plc, DocuSign, Salesforce, and Adobe experienced significant stock declines following the announcement.