Anthropic: Businesses Are Mostly Using AI to Automate Work

Businesses are overwhelmingly relying on Anthropic’s artificial intelligence software to automate rather than collaborate on work, according to a new report from the OpenAI rival, adding to the risk that AI will upend livelihoods.

More than three quarters (77%) of companies’ usage of Anthropic’s Claude AI software involved automation patterns, often including “full task delegation,” according to a research report the startup released on Monday. The finding was based on an analysis of traffic from Anthropic’s application programming interface, which is used by developers and businesses.

Anthropic is one of the leading firms selling AI tools to companies with the goal of helping to speed up software development, research and writing, among other tasks. But the technology has sparked concerns about potential mass layoffs and worker displacement — a risk Anthropic also highlights in the report.

Peter McCrory, head of economics at Anthropic, said it’s not clear whether the increase in automation detailed in the report is due to “new model capabilities that are expanding the set of things that get automated, or if it’s people being more comfortable with large language models and becoming more willing to delegate certain tasks to Claude.”

Figuring out which of those two is driving the shift “is an important area of research for the future,” he said.

On the whole, Anthropic found businesses primarily use Claude for administrative tasks and coding, the latter of which has been a key focus for the company and much of the AI industry. Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI developers have released more sophisticated AI tools that can write and debug code on a user’s behalf.

Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei has previously issued particularly dire predictions, claiming AI could wipe out 50% of entry-level jobs and that people should stop “sugarcoating” what lies ahead.

Asked whether the report reinforces Amodei’s prediction, Anthropic’s head of external affairs, Sarah Heck, said, “We don’t know. This data shows something new is happening.”