Executive Summary
Anthropic is a) a software-as-a-service (SaaS) killer, b) a disruptor of multiple industries with its Claude large language model (LLM) and the agentic apps built around it, c) an ingredient brand for enterprise software, d) already part of the enterprise technology establishment via a well-worn SaaS playbook, or e) all of the above?
The correct answer would be “all of the above,” because multiple things about Anthropic can be true at the same time. Anthropic has been portrayed as a SaaS assassin. Anthropic launches connectors and plug-ins to various enterprise apps, and SaaS stocks tank. Anthropic doubles down on Claude Code and Cowork, and suddenly we’re all expected to generate enterprise resource planning (ERP), human capital management (HCM), and other systems on the fly. Anthropic rolls out security code checks, and cybersecurity stocks stumble. Anthropic talks about modernizing COBOL, and IBM shares collapse.
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