Barclays plans to put Claude Code in front of half its developers by end of 2026
Barclays plans to put Claude Code in front of half its developers by end of 2026 #
Barclays has expanded its partnership with Anthropic to bring Claude models into software development, internal search, and client email handling across the bank.
The central commitment covers Claude Code: Barclays plans to give the agentic coding tool to 50% of its software developers by the end of 2026 and to a majority of its engineering workforce by 2027.
Craig Bright, Group Co-Chief Operating Officer at Barclays, said in a joint statement published October 1: “We’re moving towards AI as an increasingly agentic capability embedded within how we build, test, secure, and operate technology. At Barclays, we’re using Claude to help modernize legacy platforms, improve software quality, and allow our technical experts to focus on the most complex challenges.”
Co-COO Anne Marie Darling said the expansion aims to cut time spent on routine tasks. “By reducing time spent on routine activities and streamlining decision-making, we can enable colleagues to focus their expertise where it matters most,” she said, adding that the goal is better outcomes for customers and clients.
Two Claude deployments are already live at the bank. The Colleague Knowledge Assistant, built on a retrieval-augmented generation architecture and running since 2025, has been adopted by more than 16,000 UK employees and has handled more than one million searches. It supports staff serving the bank’s more than 20 million UK retail customers.
In Barclays’ Global Markets business, Claude models classify, enrich, and route incoming client emails. The system processes around 120,000 emails per day, reducing manual handling and helping operations staff prioritize time-sensitive requests.
Paul Smith, Chief Commercial Officer at Anthropic, said the partnership is a milestone for the company’s UK presence and that the rollout is designed with security controls and human oversight given the demands of a high-volume, regulated banking environment.
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