This week Anthropic, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman officially launched Ode, an AI services company that combines Anthropic’s frontier AI models with a team of engineers and operators, backed by a consortium of heavyweight investors that includes Goldman Sachs, General Atlantic, Leonard Green & Partners, Apollo Global Management, GIC and Sequoia Capital. The launch is built on the foundation of Fractional AI, the applied AI services firm acquired in May 2026. Ode is led by Fractional AI co-founders Chris Taylor and Eddie Siegel, who assume the roles of chief executive officer and chief technology officer respectively. For law firms, the launch is notable because it reflects the fact, as noted by legal AI founder Tim Pullan, that the next wave of AI is not just in the models, it’s in vertical solutions that reshape workflows and offerings for specific industries. Pullan founded law firm product studio Purple in July 2025, with the aim of helping law firms to ‘turn ideas into outcome-priced platforms that clients value.’ We have already seen a marked increase in law firm build projects, not least Kirkland & Ellis’s $500m AI build with Palantir. Shoosmiths in June launched its own contract review platform Apollo.