- Anthropic aims to integrate with India's IT and consulting ecosystem, says CEO Dario Amodei
- The company plans partnerships with major Indian IT firms to enhance enterprise AI tools
- Amodei views AI as a productivity amplifier, not a replacement, for software services
Anthropic wants to embed itself inside India's powerful IT and consulting ecosystem, CEO Dario Amodei has said. Speaking on Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath's podcast ‘WTF Is', the Anthropic chief detailed a partnership-led India strategy, one that sees the country as a force multiplier for enterprise AI.
“This is my second time in India,” said Dario Amodei, recalling meetings with “all the major Indian IT and conglomerates.” While he did not name companies, he added, “We're beginning to work with most or all of them.”
“Anthropic is an enterprise company. Its job is to serve other companies,” Amodei said. “We want to work with companies in India to provide our tools to them, to help them build those tools and help them do their job better.”
“If we work with a company here, they know the Indian market better,” Amodei said. “They're better at doing what they do, whether that's consulting, systems integration, or building IT tools, than we are, particularly for the Indian market. Our hope is that we can add AI to what they do and enhance what they do.”
Amodei acknowledged concerns that artificial intelligence could hollow out software services and SaaS businesses. He also said that AI, deployed correctly, can amplify rather than erase value.
“If we work with these companies, AI can enhance what they're doing, enhance their connection to the market, their go-to-market abilities and their specific know-how,” he said.
Drawing on history, Amodei compared AI's rise to the invention of the steam engine, a technology that transformed productivity. “At the beginning of a change, you need a human to operate the steam engine,” he said. Over time, automation deepens.
“The scope of automation is going to expand,” Amodei admitted. “That's a problem for everyone, for IT companies, for consumers, even for us.”
Even as automation increases, Amodei believes other competitive advantages or “moats” will grow in importance. Indian IT services firms, many of which combine consulting with technology integration, possess dense networks of institutional relationships.
“Things are human-centric. Some of these IT companies are also consulting companies, and they have a big web of relationships with other humans, with other institutions here in India or across the world. And I think those relationships are gonna become increasingly important,” Amodei told Kamath.
Asked about career advice for young Indians and which industries might face disruption and which have “runway left,” Amodei pointed to human-centric skills.
“I would think about tasks that are human-centred, tasks that involve relating to people… Things like code and software engineering are becoming more and more AI-focused,” he said.
He predicted coding would be the first to be automated. “I think coding is going away first, or coding is being done by AI models first. Then the broader task of software engineering will take longer,” he told Kamath.
Amodei pointed to the concept of comparative advantage, explaining that even a small human contribution can be amplified by AI, making workers far more productive. He encouraged young professionals to focus on physically grounded and analytical skills, which AI currently struggles to replicate. Roles that combine judgment, coordination, and understanding human and institutional needs will continue to be valuable.
