LG CNS Secures Anthropic's Top-Tier Partner Status—One of Fewer Than 50 Worldwide
LG CNS has become the first South Korean company to attain "Preferred" status—the upper tier of Anthropic's enterprise artificial intelligence partner program. Fewer than 50 of the roughly 40,000 partner companies worldwide hold this designation, signifying official recognition of business capabilities spanning Claude adoption and implementation.
According to IT industry sources on October 13, LG CNS was selected for Preferred status in Anthropic's Claude Partner Network (CPN) on October 5. CPN is an official program that evaluates technical expertise and actual project delivery track records of system integration (SI) firms, AI companies, and consultancies that support enterprise customers' Claude adoption and system implementation.
The tier system consists of five levels: Registered, Certified, Select, Preferred, and Global Premier. To attain Preferred status, a partner must have at least 100 Claude-certified professionals, at least 15 customers with Claude deployed in production environments, and at least three public customer case studies.
LG CNS reportedly has approximately 140 professionals holding Claude certifications and around 20 actual service deployment cases—well above the minimum requirements for Preferred status. Building on this foundation, the company plans to support the entire journey of enterprise AI adoption, from strategy development to system implementation and operations.
Rebuilding a 20-Year-Old System in Seven Months with Claude Code
The company has also delivered meaningful results in actual customer projects. LG CNS completely rebuilt a construction-sector customer's roughly 20-year-old project management system using Anthropic's AI coding tool, Claude Code.
In the engagement, which ran for approximately seven months from November of last year to June of this year, LG CNS converted 2,888 of the legacy system's 2,913 application programming interfaces (APIs) to the new system, achieving a 99.1% conversion rate. The company also migrated 1,340 existing screens to a React-based architecture.
Anthropic featured this case on its official website in July, stating that costs were reduced by approximately 50% compared to conventional rebuilding approaches. LG CNS is using Claude Code as a standard development methodology at its Build Center, which houses roughly 200 engineers.
LG CNS explained that it used Claude Code to analyze the existing system's architecture and business logic, streamlining the conversion process. The company has now secured a case demonstrating how generative AI can simultaneously reduce development timelines and costs in large-scale IT system modernization.
Expanding Collaboration with Anthropic
The collaboration between the two companies spans investment, adoption, and implementation. LG CNS invested in Anthropic through LG Technology Ventures in 2023, and in June signed a contract to adopt the enterprise AI service Claude Enterprise. The agreement is structured as an integrated contract applicable across all LG Group affiliates.
LG CNS is building AI agents connected to internal systems to boost employee productivity, and is expanding Claude Enterprise adoption across affiliates including LG Electronics and LG Chem, as well as external customers. Customers seeking to adopt Claude Enterprise can currently receive LG CNS support through the Amazon Bedrock-based reseller framework.
Choi Ki-young, head of Anthropic Korea, said: "We are pleased to establish a partnership with LG CNS that can successfully support enterprise customers' AI transformation journeys. We will work closely together to ensure both companies grow based on Claude services."
Kim Tae-hoon, head of LG CNS's AI Cloud Business Division (Executive Vice President), said: "Through this Preferred status attainment, we have officially demonstrated our Claude expertise and customer project delivery experience. Building on our collaboration with Anthropic, we will provide AI services optimized for customers' work and system environments and accelerate enterprise AI transformation."
Samsung SDS Secures Select Status, Mounting a Challenge
Collaboration with Anthropic among South Korean IT services companies is shaping a competitive landscape. Samsung SDS (018260.KS) last month became the first South Korean company to attain CPN Select status. Select is the tier below Preferred, requiring at least 10 Anthropic-certified professionals and at least two production customers.
Samsung SDS previously signed a strategic partnership with Anthropic in July and began jointly targeting South Korea's enterprise AI market. The company is pursuing Claude adoption consulting, model supply through Amazon Bedrock, service implementation and operations, and technical support. As of September, Samsung SDS was providing Claude Enterprise to 20 Samsung affiliates and approximately 70,000 employees, and plans to expand its external enterprise customer business based on this internal deployment experience.
Anthropic is also actively targeting the South Korean market. The company opened its Seoul office in June and is expanding collaboration with South Korean enterprises and research institutions. Collaboration between global model providers and South Korean implementation and operations firms is expected to intensify further in the enterprise AI market.
LG CNS plans to use the Preferred status attainment as a springboard to increase its certified workforce and secure additional Claude implementation and operations cases based on Amazon Bedrock, strengthening its enterprise generative AI business.