Anthropic is looking to court smaller companies. To that end, the company announced Wednesday the launch of Claude for Small Business, a new suite of services designed for customers who less resemble Walmart and Starbucks and more resemble the local hardware store or coffee shop.<\/p>\n
So far, much of the most intensive AI adoption has occurred at the enterprise level. In the recent past, studies have shown<\/a> that most companies that scaled AI systems beyond experimental or pilot-level integration tended to be large companies with expansive budgets. This appears to be changing somewhat<\/a>, as smaller and midsized businesses are seeing greater adoption.<\/p>\n Anthropic\u2019s new bundle of features are designed to serve those new AI converts. They are available via a newly introduced toggle within Claude Cowork, the company\u2019s task-automation platform for business users that can browse the web, manage files, and execute multistep workflows on a user\u2019s behalf. By toggling it on, paying users gain access to a host of automated services, including bookkeeping functions, business insights, and generative tools for ad campaigns.<\/p>\n The new suite also includes integrations between Claude Cowork and a number of software products \u2014 like QuickBooks, Canva, Docusign, HubSpot, and PayPal.<\/p>\n \u201cSmall businesses account for 44% of U.S. GDP and employ nearly half the private-sector workforce, but their adoption of AI has lagged behind larger enterprises,\u201d the company said. \u201cTools and training are rarely tailored to the ways small businesses operate, and as a result their use often stops at the chat window.\u201d<\/p>\n For founders and investors, the move signals that the AI platform wars are expanding downmarket and that the next major battleground for user acquisition isn\u2019t the Fortune 500; it\u2019s the 36 million<\/a> small businesses that make up the backbone of the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n Anthropic is a little behind its competitor, OpenAI, which launched Enterprise ChatGPT<\/a> at the end of 2023, including an integration for smaller teams called ChatGPT Business.<\/p>\n Anthropic is planning to aggressively promote its new features with a coast-to-coast promotional tour, starting in Chicago and hitting 10 cities in total. At each stop, the company plans to offer a free AI training workshop that will be available to 100 local small business leaders.<\/p>\n