Anthropic targets financial advisers with new Claude tool

Sept 14 (Reuters) - AI lab Anthropic on Monday launched a set of tools for financial advisers, connecting its Claude chatbot to investment analytics and wealth-management software from firms including BlackRock, Charles Schwab and Addepar. 

The product, called Claude for Financial Advisors, is designed to help financial services firms prepare for client meetings, review portfolios and handle follow-up work.

The launch comes days after rival OpenAI introduced a version of ChatGPT for the industry, targeting investment bankers and equity researchers with tools for financial research, modeling and client materials.

It also builds on Anthropic's broader push into financial services, where it has developed tools based on its AI model Claude for tasks including investment research, portfolio analysis, financial modeling and preparing client materials.

Anthropic's new offering connects Claude with data and software from firms including Envestnet, iCapital, Orion, Wealthbox, Wealth.com and Zocks.

The announcement comes as the pace and cost of AI development faces growing scrutiny, with industry leaders increasingly questioning whether spending can be sustained and how quickly the technology should advance amid mounting fears of misuse.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda)