Province uses AI tools to rebuild decades-old technology

“Alberta spent decades building technology that worked for government,” said Nate Glubish, Minister of Technology and Innovation. “Now we are rebuilding it to work better for Albertans and doing it faster and for far less. The tools our team built are world-class, and we are sharing them openly because every government is stuck with the same aging systems we were. Alberta is not waiting to solve this problem. We are solving it, and we are showing others how.”

The government added that over the past year and a half, the Ministry of Technology and Innovation has built its own set of AI tools to document and transform decades-old technologies.

As a result, Alberta built and deployed a team of AI agents, software that can work through tasks on its own, using Anthropic’s Claude AI models.

In 20 hours, the technology reviewed over 466 million lines of government code, giving Alberta its first complete picture of the health and security of its systems.

Alberta is sharing everything it has learned along the way with the publication of 21 technical papers which highlight a step-by-step way of transforming government.

These papers are released as free and open-source resources, along with advanced tools, simulations, and step-by-step instructions, so other governments can follow the same path. These published papers are available at thevelocitywhitepapers.com.

“What Alberta built demonstrates something governments have long needed: a practical, documented approach to tackling the technical debt and security exposure that accumulates in decades of legacy code,” said Brian Peters, head of North America Government Affairs, Anthropic. “Alberta’s approach is remarkably innovative – it used Claude to deliver real results at scale, building more secure systems that cost taxpayers less. We’re committed to helping other governments build on what Alberta has established.”

Supporting one ministry, a plan is underway to leverage AI agents to replace 185 aging systems with 16 modern applications which the government owns outright.

This work builds on the Alberta AI Academy, a free and open resource to help every public servant learn to work with AI. Since it launched in September 2025, the Academy has trained more than 2,000 public servants, from front-line staff to senior leaders.

“Alberta is emerging as the North Star in Canada’s government transformation,” said Farsad Nasseri, country managing director, Google Cloud Canada. “Google Cloud is proud to power the agentic layer of this digital leap, providing the market-leading AI tools and secure, governed infrastructure needed to modernize service for all Albertans.”

Quick facts

Alberta’s Ministry of Technology and Innovation runs more than 1,280 applications and 3,400 collections of computer code across all 27 provincial ministries.
Modernizing this technology the traditional way would cost roughly $2 billion and take more than a century. Using AI, Alberta is targeting a 95 per cent reduction in both time and cost.
Alberta built AI tools using Anthropic’s Claude AI to review more than 466 million lines of government code in about 20 hours, giving Alberta its first complete view of the health and security of its systems.
In one ministry, 185 aging systems are being replaced by 16 modern applications the government owns outright.
Alberta’s systems blocked an average of 189 million connection attempts per day in 2024-25, more than double the volume two years earlier.

by rdnewsNOW staff

Province uses AI tools to rebuild decades-old technology

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