Alberta uses AI to overhaul aging public service technology, saving billions of dollars
Published on Monday, July 6, 2026 at 2:22 p.m.
The state is leveraging advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to reimagine decades-old public service technology.
According to a July 6 media release, the Government of Alberta is leveraging tools developed by Anthropic and Google to support and protect many provincial departments. The release states that thanks to new tools, some of the infrastructure work being done was completed in hours instead of years.
“This initiative makes Alberta a leader in the adoption of AI in public services in North America,” the release states.
The Department of Technology and Innovation has been developing its own AI tools over the past 18 months. These include “AI agent” tools developed using Anthropic’s Claude AI model that can operate independently. The officials said they reviewed approximately 466 million lines of computer code on government servers in about 20 hours.
Doing this manually would take years.
“Alberta has spent decades building technology that works for our government,” said Nate Grubish, Minister of Technology and Innovation. “Now we are rebuilding it to work better for Albertans, faster and at a much lower cost.”
The Government of Alberta is sharing everything it has learned developing these tools through the publication of 21 technical papers.
Known as Velocity White Papers, these are free, open-source resources that can be used by other governments.
In addition to the technical documentation, the state plans to use AI agents to replace 165 separate systems with 16 new applications that will be wholly owned by the government.
“AI agents have demonstrated the potential to speed up work by up to 20 times while reducing the time it takes to modernize critical systems by up to 95%,” the release states. “Furthermore, these tools strengthen cybersecurity protections and already block more than 189 million connection attempts every day, as well as fraud against social programs that are blocked on average every minute.”
The release says the ongoing efforts build on the Alberta AI Academy, a resource for civil servants to learn how to use AI that was launched in September 2025.
“What Alberta has built represents what governments have needed for a long time: a practical, documented approach to addressing the technical debt and security risks built up in decades of legacy code,” said Brian Peters, Head of North American Government Affairs at Anthropic. “Alberta’s approach is incredibly innovative. We used Claude to achieve real results at scale, building a safer system and reducing the burden on taxpayers. We are committed to helping other governments build what Alberta has established.”
The Department of Technology and Innovation uses a collection of more than 1,280 applications and 3,400 computer codes across 27 state departments.
By using AI to help modernize technology, Alberta expects to save 95 per cent on the estimated $2 billion it would cost to upgrade using traditional methods.
