Governor Gavin Newsom has announced that California has partnered with artificial intelligence company Anthropic to expand access to its AI assistant, Claude, across state agencies under a new agreement aimed at supporting government workers.

Under the agreement, state agencies may access Anthropic’s AI productivity assistant, Claude, at a 50% discounted price, coupled with free workforce training as well as expert GenAI technical assistance and workflow support from Anthropic developers.

The same discounted arrangement will also be available to California’s local governments, including cities and counties.

According to the governor, Claude will help state workers with tasks such as drafting and summarizing documents, analyzing information and supporting day-to-day government workflows.

“As a California company, we feel a real responsibility to our home state. We’re honored to expand our partnership with California’s agencies and to put Claude to work for the people who keep this state running,” said Kate Jensen, Head of Americas at Anthropic.

Claude is the first AI productivity tool that will be available to all state agencies through the California Department of Technology’s Statewide Information Technology Shared Services (SITeS) portal.

The portal centralizes AI tools in one place with transparent pricing around key business use cases such as improving operational efficiency, enhancing data security, and optimizing state worker experience.

“CDT is partnering with departments across the state to leverage the state’s purchasing power to make it easy to procure new tools, fast and for the best price,” said Chris Given, California State Chief Information Officer and Director of the Department of Technology.

California has already deployed Claude across several government initiatives, including Engaged California and Poppy.

The California Department of Technology (CDT) and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) are using Claude Security and Claude Code for cyber defence, while the California Department of Motor Vehicles is using Claude to improve customer service and reduce wait times, and the California Department of Health Care Services is using Claude for internal workflows.

According to the Newsom administration, California is home to 33 of the world’s top 50 private AI companies. The Anthropic partnership is part of the state’s broader AI strategy.

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