An AI services venture jointly funded by Anthropic, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman has acquired San Francisco-based applied AI services firm Fractional AI, SiliconANGLE reported on May 21. The deal value was not disclosed. The venture is backed by $1.5 billion in total commitments from Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman and Goldman Sachs to help mid-sized companies adopt Claude for core business work.

Views on software customization in enterprise software are shifting as AI agents spread, with some in the industry saying optimization is becoming a future-defining keyword. Calls are growing for system integration-style work to build software to customer needs, with some arguing AI agents without customization struggle in enterprise markets. Major AI firms are expanding hiring of forward deployed engineers and forming joint ventures to support deployments, while executives say deploying agents is complex and requires deep process understanding.