California partners with Anthropic to bring Claude to government agencies

California has entered a partnership with Anthropic to make Claude available to state agencies and local governments as an AI productivity tool for public service work. Agencies may access Claude at a 50% discounted price, along with free workforce training, GenAI technical assistance and workflow support from Anthropic developers.

The state expects Claude to support drafting, summarization, information analysis and day-to-day administrative work. Existing deployments include Engaged California, the Poppy tool for state employees, cyber defense work by CDT and CalOES, CA DMV customer service improvements, and internal workflows at the CA Dept of Healthcare Services.

Claude will be offered through the California Department of Technology’s new Statewide Information Technology Shared Services portal, which centralizes AI tools with transparent pricing for business uses such as operational efficiency, data security and worker experience. The agreement follows Newsom administration efforts around AI procurement guidelines, workforce training, civil rights and privacy protections, and broader government efficiency initiatives.

California says its policy agenda has included the 2023 Generative AI executive order, pilots for customer service and road safety, over 20 new AI trainings for state workers, and the Transparency in Frontier Technology Act, also known as Senate Bill 53. A March 2026 executive order further expanded procurement safeguards and adoption of AI for government services.