New AI has brought down the stocks of financial companies. The "software apocalypse" started similarly

Shares of asset management companies fell sharply on Tuesday, February 10, following the emergence of a new AI tool designed to develop strategies and create financial documents. Investors fear that automation could threaten the traditional model of financial advice and wealth management, Bloomberg writes. Similar fears about software developers triggered a sell-off in early February that analysts called a "software apocalypse."

Shares of Charles Schwab management company fell by 7.4% at the end of trading on February 11. Shares of Raymond James fell by 8.8%, and LPL Financial - by 8.3%. Shares of Stifel Financial lost 3.8% of their value. Shares of JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets, fell by 1.2%, Morgan Stanley - by 2.5%, Bank of America - by 1.8%. At the same time, Raymond James securities showed the strongest decline since March 2020, and shares of Charles Schwab and LPL Financial - since April 2025, Bloomberg wrote.

The selloff caught Wall Street by surprise: of the entire list, only Charles Schwab shares have a Sell rating - and that only from one of 24 experts tracking the securities, Bloomberg noted. The reason for the stock drop was the launch of a new tool from private technology company Altruist Corp. The Hazel platform helps financial advisers personalize strategies for clients and automatically generate settlement sheets, account statements and other documents, the company said.

Altruist's management team is familiar with the industry: founder and CEO Jason Wenk started his career at Morgan Stanley, and COO Mazi Bahadori worked at Pimco, Bloomberg notes .

"The sell-off appears to be linked to broader concerns that AI could disrupt the financial advisory and asset management model," said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Neil Sipes. He said investors are now focusing on the risks of lower fees over the long term, increased competition and possible market share redistribution.

Altruist is just one of a growing number of startups implementing AI in financial services, Bloomberg noted. Rogo Technologies is developing solutions for investment bankers, while Hebbia is positioning itself as an AI platform for financial data processing. Big players are also getting active in this direction: late last year, OpenAI signed an agreement with Intuit, allowing users to work with financial data inside ChatGPT, adds Bloombderg.

Concerns about the impact of AI on traditional business models are spreading across market sectors. In early February, shares of software developers fell sharply after the release of new tools by Anthropic's Claude Cowork to automate work tasks. The collapse of quotations was so sharp and significant that traders began to call it the "software apocalypse".

On Feb. 9, a similar sell-off hit insurance brokers after Insurify's AI-based rate comparison service, which uses the power of ChatGPT, appeared, Bloomberg recalls.

In trading on January 10, the broad market index S&P 500 and the "technological" Nasdaq resumed their decline after two days of growth. The Dow Jones blue-chip index, on the other hand, hit a record closing high for the third day in a row.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor