AI companies are moving directly into enterprise services, opening a new front in their challenge to established IT services providers and consultancy firms, including those in India. Anthropic on Monday, May 4, announced a joint venture backed by a consortium of VCs, hedge funds, and private equity firms to embed its engineers and Claude models directly into the core operations of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). A day later, reports suggested that OpenAI is also finalising a near-identical joint venture with firms such as TPG and Bain Capital to help enterprises deploy its AI tools and services. Both ventures look to raise capital from alternative asset managers to unlock new channels for enterprise AI deals by getting preferred sales access to their investors’ portfolio companies. In exchange, investors stand to gain from any deals or contracts that follow.…