<p>Artificial intelligence has become remarkably good at writing code, answering questions and analysing documents. Yet most businesses still struggle to use it in meaningful ways. Anthropic believes it knows why and its answer is not another AI model. The Claude maker has launched Ode, a $1.5 billion enterprise AI implementation company, in partnership with Blackstone, Hellman &amp; Friedman and a consortium of investors including Goldman Sachs, General Atlantic, Apollo Global Management, Leonard Green &amp; Partners, GIC and Sequoia Capital. The idea behind Ode is simple: the next big AI opportunity may not be building smarter models, but helping companies actually deploy them.</p><h2><strong>AI models are improving. Businesses are not keeping up</strong></h2><p><br>Over the past two years, AI models have become dramatically more capable. But many companies still find it difficult to integrate AI into their daily operations. The challenge is rarely the model itself. Businesses often have fragmented data, undocumented workflows, legacy software and strict compliance requirements. As a result, many AI projects never move beyond small pilot programmes.</p><p>Anthropic believes this "implementation gap" could become one of the biggest opportunities in enterprise technology. Rather than selling software licences, Ode will send experienced AI engineers directly into organisations to understand how they work before designing custom AI systems around their existing processes.</p><h2><strong>What exactly does Ode do?</strong></h2><p><br>Ode describes itself as a "scaled boutique" AI implementation firm. Its engineers work alongside executives and employees to identify repetitive work, automate complex business processes and build AI tools tailored to a company's internal systems. Instead of offering a one-size-fits-all chatbot, the company focuses on integrating AI into finance, customer support, operations, legal teams, software development and decision-making workflows. The goal is to redesign how businesses operate rather than simply adding another AI assistant.</p><p>The company is built on the team behind Fractional AI, a startup known for deploying AI solutions inside enterprises. Around 100 senior engineers including former startup founders now form Ode's core implementation team.</p><h2><strong>Claude comes first but not exclusively</strong></h2><p>Although Ode follows a Claude-first strategy and works closely with Anthropic's applied AI teams, it is not restricted to Anthropic's technology alone. If another AI model is better suited for a particular task, Ode says it can incorporate competing technologies into enterprise deployments. This flexibility reflects a growing trend across enterprise AI, where businesses increasingly choose combinations of models rather than relying on a single provider.</p><h2><strong>Why Blackstone sees a trillion-dollar opportunity</strong></h2><p><br>The idea for Ode emerged after Blackstone noticed that companies across its investment portfolio were buying AI tools but struggling to achieve measurable business results.&nbsp;<br><br>The private equity giant concluded that implementation not model development had become the industry's biggest bottleneck. That insight led to the creation of Ode, with Blackstone providing capital, operational expertise and access to portfolio companies as early customers. For Anthropic, the arrangement allows it to continue focusing on frontier AI research and model safety while extending Claude into real-world enterprise environments through a specialised implementation partner.</p><h2><strong>A new phase in the AI race</strong></h2><p>The launch highlights how competition in artificial intelligence is beginning to shift. For years, companies raced to build the most powerful foundation models. Now the focus is increasingly moving towards helping organisations extract measurable value from them. Industry analysts have often compared the current AI market to the early days of cloud computing, when technology alone was not enough and implementation partners became essential.</p><p>If Anthropic's bet proves correct, the biggest AI businesses of the next decade may not be the companies building models but those helping enterprises completely redesign how work gets done.</p>

Anthropic has launched Ode, a $1.5 billion enterprise AI company backed by Blackstone and Goldman Sachs. Rather than building another AI model, Ode will help businesses integrate AI into their core operations, betting implementation

Artificial intelligence has become remarkably good at writing code, answering questions and analysing documents. Yet most businesses still struggle to use it in meaningful ways. Anthropic believes it knows why and its answer is not another AI model. The Claude maker has launched Ode, a $1.5 billion enterprise AI implementation company, in partnership with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman and a consortium of investors including Goldman Sachs, General Atlantic, Apollo Global Management, Leonard Green & Partners, GIC and Sequoia Capital. The idea behind Ode is simple: the next big AI opportunity may not be building smarter models, but helping companies actually deploy them. AI models are improving. Businesses are not keeping up Over the past two years, AI models have become dramatically more capable. But many companies still find it difficult to integrate AI into their daily operations. The challenge is rarely the model itself. Businesses often have fragmented data, undocumented workflows, legacy software and strict compliance requirements. As a result, many AI projects never move beyond small pilot programmes. Anthropic believes this "implementation gap" could become one of the biggest opportunities in enterprise technology. Rather than selling software licences, Ode will send experienced AI engineers directly into organisations to understand how they work before designing custom AI systems around their existing processes. What exactly does Ode do? Ode describes itself as a "scaled boutique" AI implementation firm. Its engineers work alongside executives and employees to identify repetitive work, automate complex business processes and build AI tools tailored to a company's internal systems. Instead of offering a one-size-fits-all chatbot, the company focuses on integrating AI into finance, customer support, operations, legal teams, software development and decision-making workflows. The goal is to redesign how businesses operate rather than simply adding another AI assistant. The company is built on the team behind Fractional AI, a startup known for deploying AI solutions inside enterprises. Around 100 senior engineers including former startup founders now form Ode's core implementation team. Claude comes first but not exclusively Although Ode follows a Claude-first strategy and works closely with Anthropic's applied AI teams, it is not restricted to Anthropic's technology alone. If another AI model is better suited for a particular task, Ode says it can incorporate competing technologies into enterprise deployments. This flexibility reflects a growing trend across enterprise AI, where businesses increasingly choose combinations of models rather than relying on a single provider. Why Blackstone sees a trillion-dollar opportunity The idea for Ode emerged after Blackstone noticed that companies across its investment portfolio were buying AI tools but struggling to achieve measurable business results. The private equity giant concluded that implementation not model development had become the industry's biggest bottleneck. That insight led to the creation of Ode, with Blackstone providing capital, operational expertise and access to portfolio companies as early customers. For Anthropic, the arrangement allows it to continue focusing on frontier AI research and model safety while extending Claude into real-world enterprise environments through a specialised implementation partner. A new phase in the AI race The launch highlights how competition in artificial intelligence is beginning to shift. For years, companies raced to build the most powerful foundation models. Now the focus is increasingly moving towards helping organisations extract measurable value from them. Industry analysts have often compared the current AI market to the early days of cloud computing, when technology alone was not enough and implementation partners became essential. If Anthropic's bet proves correct, the biggest AI businesses of the next decade may not be the companies building models but those helping enterprises completely redesign how work gets done.

<p>Anthropic has launched Ode, a $1.5 billion enterprise AI company backed by Blackstone and Goldman Sachs. Rather than building another AI model, Ode will help businesses integrate AI into their core operations, betting implementation not models is the industry's next trillion-dollar opportunity.</p>

Claude-maker Anthropic launches Ode, an enterprise AI company that learns how your business works and helps you run on AI

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Claude-maker Anthropic launches Ode, an enterprise AI company that learns how your business works and helps you run on AI