Anthropic’s launch of AI legal tool hits shares in European data companies

Pearson, Experian and others fall sharply after startup unveils software to automate a range of professional services

European publishing and legal software companies have suffered sharp declines in their share prices after the US artificial intelligence startup Anthropic revealed a tool for use by companies' legal departments.

Anthropic, the company behind the chatbot Claude, said its tool could automate legal work such as contract reviewing, non-disclosure agreement triage, compliance workflows, legal briefings and templated responses.