Anthropic is pitching financial advisors on a version of Claude that blends the chatbot with financial analytics and risk management technology run by BlackRock, Vanguard Group and other firms.
Called Claude for Financial Advisors, the system promises to speed up research, administrative and portfolio-oversight tasks, according to senior executives at Anthropic and BlackRock.
It's one of the most significant steps so far by the AI firm to move into the financial industry. The feature — which also connects with tools from Charles Schwab and iCapital, among others — builds on Anthropic's earlier introduction of AI agents designed for financial services tasks, including drafting pitch decks and reviewing statements.
The firm is making its pitch to the finance industry at a time of growth and tumult for all AI firms. Anthropic and OpenAI, which last week introduced its own financial services feature tailored to investment bankers and equity researchers, are both planning initial public offerings that will net billions for early investors.
At the same time, the rapid growth of artificial intelligence technologies is raising alarm bells for lawmakers and industry leaders worldwide. On Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the development of the most advanced systems must be slowed in order to prevent catastrophe; OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk endorsed his statement.
Anthropic, like OpenAI, has been vying for business customers with specialized services beyond software engineering and coding.
Claude for Financial Advisors is part of that initiative, pitching a more efficient process for advisors that allows them to handle more clients.
"The actual financial advisor community — it's not that big and it's actually shrinking," Jonathan Pelosi, Anthropic head of financial services, said in an interview. "These people are retiring, there's not a ton of them. So great financial guidance is actually not in high supply. If we can do something to help enable these advisors to service more customers, we think of that as an absolute win."
Anthropic's system can connect more advisors to portfolio analytics and investment research offerings from firms including BlackRock and Vanguard and could lead to more business for these companies. Financial advisors increasingly rely on "model portfolios" of exchange-traded funds and other investments; BlackRock, for example, said it now manages about $300 billion in these portfolios.
"One of the biggest trends we're seeing is advisors wanting to outsource," Jaime Magyera, head of BlackRock's U.S. wealth advisory and retirement businesses. "The opportunity around helping advisors build portfolios is not just about better information, it's about helping them with greater capacity."
Investment recommendations and decisions would remain up to advisors and their clients.
"You won't explicitly get investment advice from Claude. We reserve that judgment for the experts," Pelosi said.
