India tech titans caught snoozing by AI

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In focus

• Scott Shuey on the wake-up call for anyone who thinks they’re “safe” from AI
• Eyes over ears: the AI firm betting on vision
• The digital bank dilemma in the Philippines

Hello reader,

Recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of Rage Against the Machine, and while the song Wake Up has nothing to do with AI, I can’t think of a more apt call to arms from our top story this week.

This week, my colleague Samreen wrote about the ongoing tech stock meltdown in India. The trigger – a new web tool by Anthropic designed to help automate work flows – wasn’t the kind of thing usually associated with sell-offs.

But apparently the market has woken up to what these tools can do, which is to end the hourly billings traditionally assigned to junior workers. Reading the writing on the wall, traders began selling off stocks in some of India’s big tech firms. The “SaaSpocalypse” was on, and US$285 billion was wiped off the markets.

Image credit: Made by Tech in Asia with the help of AI

Why did this happen now? I’ve not heard a good answer, and I really don’t think it matters. A better question might be, weren’t these companies working on competing products? According to some of the sources that Samreen spoke to, they just didn’t think this would happen to them.

Just like when Blackberry and Nokia decided that the iPhone didn’t pose any serious threats to their line of smartphones.

Speaking of waking up, everyone needs to be aware of what’s going on with tech, especially in today’s business environment.

To help you do that, we have rolled out First Dibs, a feature intended to give paid subscribers advanced – and exclusive – notice about upcoming stories, as well as provide early access to news and information.

Scott Shuey, senior editor

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1️⃣ The AI reckoning threatening India’s software assembly line

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