Monday morning, I checked whether the news affected me
At 9 a.m. Monday, I was in a Hangzhou café when I saw that Anthropic’s pre-IPO valuation might be around $1.1 trillion. My first thought wasn’t to research the stock. It was: if leading AI companies are being repriced, will the AI services we sell become harder to sell?
I’ve only recently understood that this kind of news isn’t far from our work as independent creators. It won’t determine our income tomorrow, but it reminds us not to chase every new tool. We need to watch what clients are actually willing to pay for.
What this is, and why it matters to us
Anthropic is the company behind ChatGPT and Claude. Reports say that after market volatility, some investors lowered their expected pre-IPO valuation to roughly $1.1–$1.3 trillion. Some think the valuation is still high; others worry growth expectations are cooling. AI commercialization dominates the discussion.
Back in the workplace, clients usually aren’t paying because a model is more advanced. They pay to avoid writing two versions of a proposal, doing another round of research, or handling every reply themselves. Zhou Yan, who runs a study-abroad consultancy, used Claude in March 2025 to organize client interviews and FAQs. She didn’t research a potential IPO; she tested it against her own consultation workflow. That’s the kind of signal we should follow.
What it costs to test this today
I don’t need to study financial reports or buy stock to feel this shift. The starting cash cost can be $0: use a free allowance to test one repetitive task. Set aside 60 minutes. The technical barrier is copying a paragraph and a screenshot; no coding required. Start by opening Claude, starting a new conversation, pasting anonymized common client questions, and adding: “Organize these into a ready-to-send FAQ, and preserve any uncertain information.”
I got this wrong too. My first attempt included a client’s real name and contract details. Luckily, I caught it early and switched to testing with aliases. When client privacy is involved, I remove names, phone numbers, addresses, and contract IDs first. There’s no rush to test today, either; a real task next week works just as well.
Not everyone needs this tool. If I neither create content nor work with clients, I wouldn’t subscribe just to follow the hype. I’d use the free version for a week and consider paying only if it saves time.
How I’d prepare at each stage
If I’m just starting: I’d use my own work as practice for a week, turning topic selection, quote explanations, or client replies into templates without building a complex workflow yet.
If I have one or two clients: I’d pick the most repetitive step that doesn’t involve sensitive data, build a small “input → draft → human review” flow, and ask a client to try it.
If I’m scaling: I’d track the time saved and number of revisions after each AI-assisted task before deciding whether to upgrade to a paid plan. I’d also keep human review and clear data-access rules.
Rather than guess which company will IPO next, I’d rather watch two things: whether clients will pay more as tools get cheaper, and whether we can deliver consistently. Anthropic’s valuation news is a signal, not a command to act. Starting with one small task puts us on a more practical path.