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

Feb 4 (Reuters) - Shares of Indian IT exporters 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.

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

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