UK partners with Anthropic to pilot Claude AI on GOV.UK

The UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) announced on 27 January 2026 a partnership with Anthropic to pilot a Claude-powered AI assistant for GOV.UK. The pilot targets employment support and gives job seekers career advice and access to training. It helps users find resources and provides step-by-step guidance through government processes. The AI keeps context across interactions. It gives users control over their data, including opt-out options that comply with UK data protection rules. This builds on a February 2025 memorandum of understanding and follows DSIT's 'Scan, Pilot, Scale' testing framework. Anthropic engineers will train Government Digital Service staff to maintain the system independently. The pilot is planned for later in 2026 as part of the AI Opportunities Action Plan. The broader initiative includes Meta's $1 million funding to the Alan Turing Institute for AI fellows working on public services, and national security work using offline AI tools.

Why It Matters

• Public sector IT teams can pilot Claude-based agents to streamline citizen services and reduce navigation time for job seekers.
• Collaborative development transfers skills to Government Digital Service staff, enabling independent maintenance and reducing vendor lock-in.
• Built-in user data controls and opt-out options support compliance with UK data protection and lower privacy risk.
• DSIT's 'Scan, Pilot, Scale' approach gives ML engineers a controlled path to test agent behaviors before wider deployment.