Anthropic tops OpenAI in enterprise

Anthropic moved deeper into business software on May 13 as new data from Ramp showed the startup had overtaken OpenAI in paid business adoption for the first time. Ramp’s May 13 AI Index said 34.4% of U.S. businesses in its sample paid for Anthropic in April, compared with 32.3% for OpenAI. On the same day, Anthropic introduced Claude for Small Business, a product that connects Claude to tools including PayPal, Intuit QuickBooks and HubSpot. The two developments landed together as AI vendors push beyond general chat tools and into finance, sales and back-office workflows. ### What exactly did Ramp measure? Ramp said its AI Index tracks the share of U.S. businesses paying for AI products using transaction data from more than 50,000 companies on its corporate card and bill-pay platform. In its May 13 release, Ramp said Anthropic’s paid adoption rose 3.8 percentage points in April to 34.4%, while OpenAI’s fell 2.9 percentage points to 32.3%. Ara Kharazian, Ramp’s lead economist, wrote that Anthropic had passed OpenAI in business adoption “for the first time” in the latest release. Ramp also said Anthropic’s adoption rate was about 9% a year earlier, indicating a sharp increase over 12 months within Ramp’s sample. ### Does that mean Anthropic has more enterprise customers than OpenAI? Ramp’s numbers describe paid adoption within its own customer base, not the entire software market. (ramp.com) The index is based on observed spending by Ramp clients, and Ramp presents it as a leading indicator rather than a census of all enterprise AI usage. TechCrunch reported that the data reflected “verified business customers” in Ramp’s network, while Business Insider described the result as a change in business AI spending leadership. (ramp.com) Those reports matched Ramp’s framing that the figures come from actual company payments rather than survey responses. ### What did Anthropic launch for small businesses? Anthropic said on May 13 that Claude for Small Business is a “toggle install” inside Claude that connects the assistant with software already used by smaller companies. The company listed Intuit QuickBooks, PayPal, HubSpot, Canva, DocuSign, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 among the supported integrations. (techcrunch.com) Anthropic said the product can handle tasks such as planning payroll, closing the month, running sales campaigns and chasing invoices. The company tied the launch to Claude Cowork, its business automation setup for multi-step tasks across applications. ### Why were PayPal, QuickBooks and HubSpot part of the announcement? PayPal said its partnership with Anthropic is aimed at helping small businesses use AI inside existing operating tools. (anthropic.com) In its May 13 newsroom post, PayPal said the new setup also works with QuickBooks, HubSpot and Canva so owners can manage more operations in one place. Anthropic’s own announcement named QuickBooks and HubSpot among the core integrations, alongside PayPal. The company said the package is designed for routine business functions such as invoicing, bookkeeping and customer outreach, rather than standalone chat use. ### What does this show about where AI vendors are competing? Ramp’s data and Anthropic’s product release both centered on paid usage tied to operating tasks. (newsroom.paypal-corp.com) Ramp measured actual software spend, while Anthropic highlighted payroll, invoicing, campaign management and month-end close in its launch materials. TechCrunch reported that Anthropic’s new offering showed the company courting small business owners as a new customer segment, and Business Insider said Claude’s rise in Ramp’s index reflected growing business adoption. (anthropic.com) Those characterizations came from the publications, not from Anthropic or Ramp directly. ### What comes next? (ramp.com) Ramp said it publishes the AI Index monthly through its Economics Lab, making the next release the clearest test of whether Anthropic keeps the lead in Ramp’s sample. Anthropic said Claude for Small Business is available through its business tooling with integrations including PayPal, QuickBooks and HubSpot. PayPal said it will continue expanding AI Fluency for Small Business training with Anthropic and nonprofit partners. (techcrunch.com) (ramp.com)