Stocks in Pearson, London Stock Exchange Group and Experian plunge amid fears over impact of AI

European publishing and legal software companies have suffered sharp declines in their share prices after the US artificial intelligence firm Anthropic announced a tool aimed at companies’ in-house lawyers.

The UK publishing group Pearson’s shares fell by 4%, while the information and analytics firm Relx plunged nearly 11% on the London stock exchange, and the Dutch software company Wolters Kluwer dropped almost 9% in Amsterdam.

Stocks in the London Stock Exchange Group and the credit reporting company Experian fell by more than 7%, amid fears over AI’s impact on data companies.

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