The first two weeks of February 2026 will likely be remembered as a structural turning point for the global technology industry. Anthropic, the San Francisco-based AI safety and research lab, has moved from being a formidable rival to OpenAI to becoming a primary disruptor of the traditional software-as-a-service (SaaS) and IT services models.
With a record-breaking $30 billion funding round led by Singapore’s GIC and Coatue Management, Anthropic’s valuation has soared to $380 billion. However, it isn’t just the valuation that is making headlines; it is the aggressive deployment of “agentic” AI tools that has triggered what Wall Street is calling the “SaaSpocalypse.” For India, the world’s back office, the tremors have been felt from the trading floors of Mumbai to the tech parks of Bengaluru.
The Catalyst: Claude 4.6 and the Rise of AI Digital Workers
On February 5, 2026, Anthropic unveiled Claude Opus 4.6, a model designed specifically for autonomous “agentic” planning. Unlike previous iterations that functioned primarily as sophisticated chatbots, Opus 4.6 can break down complex business goals into independent sub-tasks, execute them in parallel using external tools, and identify blockers with human-like precision.
Accompanying this was the general release of Claude Cowork, an enterprise-focused suite featuring 11 powerful automation plug-ins. These tools allow Claude to autonomously handle end-to-end workflows that were once the bread and butter of Indian IT giants:
-
Legal & Compliance: Reviewing high-volume contracts, NDAs, and generating risk reports.
-
Financial Operations: Reconciling data, preparing audit-ready documents, and market analysis.
-
Software Engineering: Managing multi-file codebases, debugging, and executing SAP migrations in a fraction of the traditional time.
The Indian Market Reaction: A ₹2.5 Lakh Crore Wipeout
The impact on the Indian market was immediate and severe. Between February 4 and February 6, the Nifty IT index witnessed its steepest fall since the 2020 pandemic crash, plunging nearly 8% in a single week.
Investors reacted to the realization that Anthropic’s tools could fundamentally break the “headcount-based” billing model. In a single day, nearly ₹2 lakh crore in market value evaporated from the top tier of Indian IT.
| Company | Stock Performance (Feb 4-6, 2026) | Market Impact |
| Infosys | Down 8.3% | Major concerns over application services |
| TCS | Down 7.0% | Fears of AI-led margin compression |
| Wipro | Down 4.5% | Pressure on BPO and maintenance contracts |
| Coforge | Down 8.2% | High exposure to specialized automation |
The “Patil Effect”—named after Anthropic’s CTO Rahul Patil, a Bengaluru native and former Oracle executive—has become a buzzword among Indian traders. Patil is credited with making Claude “enterprise-ready” by optimizing its performance on chips and reducing operational costs, allowing Anthropic to offer always-on AI agents directly to global clients.
Anthropic’s “India First” Strategy
Despite the market volatility, Anthropic is paradoxically betting big on India. The company has announced the opening of its first Indian office in Bengaluru in early 2026, making it their second Asia-Pacific hub after Tokyo.
Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, recently highlighted that India is the company’s second-largest consumer market for Claude. The expansion aims to tap into India’s massive developer pool and align with the “IndiaAI” mission. Key pillars of their local strategy include:
-
Indic Language Support: Deep localization for Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, and five other major languages to enable public sector adoption.
-
Global AI Summit: Anthropic is partnering with the Government of India to co-host the Global AI Summit in late February 2026, focusing on “responsible and sovereign AI.”
-
Social Impact: Deploying agentic models in healthcare and agriculture to assist in rural advisory services.
Strategic Pivot: From Labor to Deployment
While the “SaaSpocalypse” suggests a grim future for traditional outsourcing, industry veterans argue it is a “redistribution of capability.” The $250 billion Indian IT sector is now in a race to move up the value chain.
Instead of billing for the hours spent writing code, firms like TCS and HCLTech are pivoting toward AI Deployment Partnerships. This involves helping global enterprises integrate Claude’s agentic tools into their legacy systems—a task that still requires deep domain expertise and human-in-the-loop (HITL) oversight.
“The era of bulk work is ending, but the era of AI supervision is beginning,” noted a recent report by Jefferies. “India’s strength lies in its ability to bring down the cost of technology dispersal, and that will be critical in the expensive AI race.”
Looking Ahead
The window for adaptation is closing. With Anthropic’s forecast to reach a break-even point by 2028 and an IPO expected in the latter half of 2026, the pace of innovation is unlikely to slow down. For the Indian market, the challenge is clear: transition from being the “factory” that provides labor to the “architect” that governs autonomous intelligence.