The boss of a top UK software firm caught in a market selloff last week over fears that artificial intelligence could destroy his business has dismissed the panic as ‘theatre’.
Steve Hare, head of Sage, told The Mail on Sunday that AI models created by firms such as Anthropic and OpenAI could not easily replace the specialised products that provide the accurate data needed for accountants to check their books and manage corporate finances.
‘On social media you can find people claiming they have an AI agent that can replace your chief financial officer and that no one needs accountants any more. That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard in my career. It’s completely ludicrous,’ he said.
Hare added: ‘When you get into this kind of AI theatre you have people coming along claiming they can do all sorts of things.’
Unfazed: Accounting software firm Sage, led by Steve Hare, inset, saw its shares fall 12 per cent
His comments came after the FTSE 100 firm’s shares fell 12 per cent last week.
Other major software and professional services groups also recorded falls, including analytics firm Relx, advertising agency WPP and the London Stock Exchange Group, which has a market data business alongside its stock market arm.
Investors were spooked by the release of a new AI tool by Silicon Valley firm Anthropic that is aimed at automating many tasks for firms including legal work, advertising and software development.
It sparked fears that companies in these sectors could find their business eaten away by US tech giants.
But Hare said Sage was unconcerned about the developments, arguing the firm’s expertise in its field allowed it to stay ahead of upstart rivals.
‘We have software that’s been built up for 40 years. Our AI solutions are better than anyone else’s,’ he said. ‘I actually believe that what is happening in the world at the moment is an advantage to incumbents.’
His comments follow similar remarks last week from Nick Train, one of the UK’s leading fund managers, who argued that Sage’s customer base of accountants ‘will not run their general ledgers on general AI’ like the models offered by Anthropic. Train, whose Finsbury Growth & Income Trust holds some of the worst hit UK-listed stocks, also shrugged off the share price falls, calling the market rout an ‘indiscriminate sell-off, even panic’.
Jensen Huang, the boss of computer chip giant Nvidia, which makes the hardware powering the AI revolution, also said that the selloff was ‘the most illogical thing in the world’ and that AI would still need to use other software tools to function.
‘There’s this notion that the tool is in decline and being replaced by AI. Would you use a screwdriver or invent a new screwdriver?,’ Huang said.
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