Anthropic Expands Push Into Legal Industry With New AI Tools

Anthropic PBC is taking steps to help legal professionals carry out more tasks using its Claude chatbot, months after the startup helped spark a steep selloff in software stocks by quietly introducing a narrower set of features.

Anthropic on Tuesday announced a dozen new tools, or plugins, intended for attorneys, law students and others in the legal sector. One feature, called “commercial counsel,” is meant to take on work like reviewing vendor agreements; another tool is intended to help with studying for the bar exam.

The company also announced ways to connect its Claude chatbot with software from other firms that are commonly used in law, such as DocuSign Inc. and Thomson Reuters Corp., as well as Harvey, a competing AI legal service. The legal features will be available to paying customers through Claude Cowork, a general-purpose AI agent meant for office work, and through third-party services built on Claude.

Anthropic and rival OpenAI have spent much of the past year developing artificial intelligence tools to streamline a wider range of professional tasks — from financial services to health care — with the goal of courting more business customers and justifying their lofty valuations. Anthropic, valued at $380 billion, has recently considered funding offers of more than $900 billion and may go public as soon as this year.