New York, January 15, 2026, 13:32 ET — Regular session
- C3.ai shares slipped roughly 0.8% in afternoon trading, erasing part of Wednesday’s bounce.
- William Blair’s analyst pointed out that Anthropic’s new “Cowork” tool dents sentiment around software stocks, but doesn’t affect the fundamentals.
- Investors are gearing up for C3.ai’s upcoming earnings report, slated for late February.
C3.ai’s shares slipped roughly 0.8% on Thursday, erasing part of the previous day’s rally as investors reevaluated software firms tied to the rapidly evolving AI tools market. Early afternoon trading saw the stock at $13.80.
The newest pressure point is “agentic” software—AI that can operate across files and apps, not just respond to prompts. Anthropic is previewing a product called Cowork, targeting non-coders. Axios reported it’s currently limited to Claude Max users on macOS. 1
William Blair analyst Arjun Bhatia weighed in Thursday, calling the market’s reaction to public software stocks “overstated.” He said the launch of Claude Cowork introduces another sentiment drag but isn’t a fundamental threat. Cowork, a premium upgrade linked to Anthropic’s Claude Max plan, starts at $100 per user per month, according to the report. 2
C3.ai shares climbed 2.58% on Wednesday, closing at $13.91 and outpacing the broader market’s weaker performance. Still, the stock sits over 60% below its 52-week peak of $35.98, reached on Feb. 10. 3
The rebound came after a steep 4.17% fall on Tuesday, with shares closing at $13.56, ending a three-day run of gains. 4
The bigger question now is whether frontier model creators like Anthropic and OpenAI end up as partners or rivals to enterprise software vendors. RBC Capital Markets analysts, in a research note highlighted by Business Insider, pointed out that Anthropic’s recent product launches lined up with a selloff in stocks like Salesforce, Workday, and Snowflake. They cautioned that “the velocity of innovation and announcements from the model providers could continue to weigh” on the software sector through 2026. 5
C3.ai, a provider of enterprise AI application software, posted $75.1 million in total revenue in its latest quarter. The company also reported holding $675.0 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. CEO Stephen Ehikian highlighted that the quarter’s momentum came mainly from its federal business, noting, “The Federal market continues to be a large growth vector for us.” 6
The downside risk remains for the stock. Should customers favor the major model providers more aggressively for workflow automation, smaller vendors could be squeezed by tougher pricing, extended sales cycles, and increased costs just to stay competitive — all factors that can quickly impact high-volatility stocks.
C3.ai is set to release its next earnings report around Feb. 25, per Zacks. Investors will focus on bookings and any changes to the company’s guidance on losses and growth during that update. 7
